The Overnight Worker Who Keeps the 9/11 Memorial Pools Clean

NEW YORK (VINnews) – When the crowds disappear from the 9/11 Memorial and the surrounding streets grow quiet, Jim Maroon begins his work.

For more than a decade, Maroon has been part of the overnight crew responsible for keeping the memorial’s two enormous reflecting pools clean and presentable.

Five nights a week, he works from late evening until early morning, using a vacuum system and other equipment to remove debris from the pools. By the time visitors begin arriving, much of his work is finished.

The job is physically demanding and repetitive, but the setting makes it unlike almost any other maintenance position in New York City.

The pools were built in the footprints of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Each covers about an acre and is surrounded by the names of people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The pools are several stories below street level. Water continuously flows down the dark granite walls before disappearing into the square openings at their centers.

According to the New York Times, Maroon has maintained the site since shortly after the memorial opened in 2012. His nightly routine includes making repeated passes across the pools while colleagues work behind him on other parts of the cleaning operation.

The work requires patience. Cleaning one of the pools can mean dozens of passes in each direction, while leaves and other material constantly find their way into the water.

Much of that debris comes from the approximately 400 trees throughout the memorial grounds. Workers also encounter coins, cans, toys and other objects left behind by visitors.

One unusual discovery was a turtle that Maroon found in one of the pools several years ago. He called it Lucky, and the turtle was eventually taken to the memorial’s offices.

Coins found in the water are turned over to the memorial, according to the Times.

The work also involves maintaining the condition of the water and stone. Treatment is used to prevent algae and other growth from damaging or discoloring the surfaces.

At night, however, the memorial takes on a completely different atmosphere from the one experienced by daytime visitors.

The crowds are gone, the surrounding area is largely quiet, and the sound of cleaning equipment carries through the vast space.

Maroon has another reason for feeling connected to the location.

His father worked at the World Trade Center, and Maroon grew up familiar with the complex. On Sept. 11, 2001, he was working only a few hundred yards away and was on his way toward the towers when the first plane struck.

He witnessed the attack and remembers seeing people falling from the buildings.

More than two decades later, those memories remain particularly difficult around the anniversary of the attacks. Working at the memorial also means regularly encountering the names of the people who were killed.

Maroon told the Times that he tries not to dwell on the events every day because doing so would be emotionally overwhelming.

Despite the emotional connection, Maroon describes his job as one that suits him. Much of the overnight work is performed independently, allowing him to concentrate on the task without the activity and distractions of the daytime.

After 14 years, the routine has become familiar. The biggest challenge, he said, is doing essentially the same work night after night.

Still, he has continued returning to the memorial.

By morning, Maroon leaves the site and heads home to Staten Island. Within hours, another day begins, bringing visitors from New York and around the world to a place where history and personal loss are remembered.

Most of those visitors will never meet the workers who maintain the pools during the overnight hours.

But every morning, they arrive to find the memorial prepared for another day of remembrance.