Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

On the morning of April 19, 1995, at exactly 9:02 a.m. local time, a rented Ryder truck packed with approximately 4,800 pounds of explosive ammonium nitrate fertilizer and nitromethane fuel was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building at the corner of 5th Street and Harvey Avenue in downtown Oklahoma City. The blast collapsed the entire front face of the nine-story building and damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius.

The bomb killed 168 people instantly. The dead included federal employees in the Murrah Building (Social Security Administration, HUD, ATF, Marshals Service, DEA), 19 children in the America's Kids daycare center on the second floor of the building, and several civilians who happened to be at the site. More than 680 people were injured, many of them seriously. The shockwave was felt 55 miles away.

The bombing was carried out by Timothy McVeigh, a Persian Gulf War veteran with deep anti-government beliefs, with assistance from co-conspirators Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier. McVeigh was apprehended within 90 minutes of the bombing on an unrelated traffic stop near Perry, Oklahoma. He was tried, convicted of 11 federal crimes, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection in 2001. Nichols received life in federal prison; Fortier received a 12-year sentence and was released in 2006.

The outdoor Symbolic Memorial occupies 3.3 acres on the actual footprint of the destroyed Murrah Building. It is open 24 hours a day, completely free, with no tickets required. Most visitors enter from the south side at Harvey Avenue, walk the reflecting pool, view the Field of Chairs, and exit through the north side at 5th Street.

The two massive bronze Gates of Time bookend the reflecting pool. The east gate is inscribed 9:01 — the last minute of peace before the bombing. The west gate is inscribed 9:03 — the first minute of recovery. The reflecting pool between them is calm and shallow, only a few inches deep, and reflects the sky and the gates. The design intends visitors to pause in the moment between the two times.

The Field of Chairs is the memorial's most affecting feature. 168 empty chairs of bronze and stone — one for each victim — sit in nine rows representing the nine floors of the destroyed building. Each chair is inscribed with a victim's name. The chairs of children who were killed in the daycare are smaller than the adult chairs and are placed together. At night the chairs are illuminated from within by a small light at each base, creating a field of 168 individual glowing presences.

The Survivor Tree at the southern end of the memorial is an American elm that was approximately 90 years old at the time of the bombing. The blast stripped most of the tree's leaves, embedded shards of glass and metal in its trunk, and was expected by arborists to kill the tree within months. Instead, the elm survived, leafed out again the following spring, and continues to thrive. The tree is fenced and protected; visitors can walk around it but not touch the trunk.

The indoor Memorial Museum occupies the restored Journal Record Building immediately north of the Symbolic Memorial. The Journal Record was the newspaper building directly across the street from the Murrah Building; it was severely damaged in the bombing but was restored and converted into the museum that opened in 2001. The museum tells the full story of the bombing across ten chronologically-organized galleries that walk visitors through the events of April 19, 1995 minute by minute.

The most powerful gallery is the Last Minute of Peace experience. Visitors enter a small recreated 1995 conference room where a recording of an actual meeting that was occurring across the street at the moment of the bombing plays. The audio includes the moment of the blast itself — the sound is sudden and overwhelming. Subsequent galleries walk visitors through the rescue and recovery, the investigation, the arrest of Timothy McVeigh, and the trial.

Other galleries cover the personal stories of the 168 victims through photographs, video interviews with family members, and personal artifacts donated by survivors and families. The Children's Gallery is particularly affecting — it honors the 19 children killed in the daycare and the dozens of children orphaned that day. The museum ends with a Reflection Gallery that allows visitors to process what they have seen before returning outside.

Plan two hours for the museum at minimum. The museum is wheelchair-accessible throughout and provides audio guides at the entrance. Tissues are placed throughout the galleries by museum staff — they are needed. Parents should consider the museum age-appropriate for ages 12 and up; younger children can find the experience overwhelming.

The Symbolic Memorial (outdoor) is open 24 hours a day and is completely free. The Memorial Museum (indoor) is open daily from 9am to 6pm with last entry at 5pm. Adult admission is $15, students and seniors $12, free for visitors under 6 and active military. Tickets can be purchased on arrival but are recommended in advance at oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org during peak tourism seasons.

The best time to visit is early morning before 11am — both the outdoor memorial and the indoor museum are quieter and the natural light on the Field of Chairs is at its best. Evening visits to the outdoor memorial (after the museum closes) are particularly affecting; the 168 illuminated chairs glow individually against the dark sky and the entire field is quiet.

Parking is available in the memorial's own parking lot on 6th Street ($5 for the day) and in adjacent downtown parking garages. Visitors should treat the memorial with the seriousness of any major war memorial or cemetery: speak quietly, dress respectfully, do not eat or drink within the Symbolic Memorial grounds, and do not pose for casual photographs (sincere photography is welcome). Children in the memorial should be kept close and supervised.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial is, for most visitors, the most important and most emotionally affecting attraction in Oklahoma City. It is not a happy stop on a vacation itinerary — it is a serious historical pilgrimage to a site of mass murder and to a community's response to it. Visitors who go are often more affected than they expect to be, and the memorial design and museum together are widely cited as some of the most powerful in the United States.

For Route 66 travelers passing through Oklahoma City, the memorial should be the priority stop even if your time in the city is short. The Symbolic Memorial alone takes 30 to 45 minutes and is completely free; combined with the museum it is a 2.5 to 3 hour experience. Most major Oklahoma City visitors agree that even abbreviated visits to the memorial are worth making.

Combine the memorial with other downtown Oklahoma City stops as time allows: the Bricktown Canal is a 10-minute walk south for lighter post-memorial activities, the Myriad Botanical Gardens are six blocks south, and the Oklahoma History Center is a 10-minute drive north. The Skirvin Hilton and the Colcord Hotel are the closest hotels for visitors staying in downtown OKC.