Oklahoma City bombing memorial nears completion

April 5, 2000
Web posted at: 4:18 p.m. EDT (2018 GMT)

OKLAHOMA CITY (CNN) -- In two weeks, a national memorial will be dedicated on the fifth anniversary of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, an attack that left 168 people dead and more than 500 injured.

	VIDEO
CNN's Tony Clark reports on the design of the structure and what it signifies. Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K

At opposite ends of the 3.5-acre memorial are two large entrance gates that frame the time of the bombing. The eastern gate reads 9:01 -- the minute just before the bombing. The western entrance is inscribed with 9:03 -- the minute immediately after.

Visitors will see a reflecting pond where Fifth Street used to run in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

They can then follow a path to a set of granite panels with the inscriptions of the survivors' names. The granite for the panels came from the Murrah building.

From there, the path leads to 168 empty seats, each etched with the name of a person killed on April 19, 1995.

Across the reflecting pool stands the survivor tree. It faces the 168 empty seats.

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Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation
The Oklahoman Online
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