New York City is not short on things to do. But among the museums, the skyline views, and the food markets, there are places that ask something different of you. They ask you to slow down and pay attention. The city’s memorials do exactly that. Whether you have half an hour or a full afternoon, visiting one of these sites tends to stay with you long after you’ve left.
This guide covers six of the most significant memorials in New York, what you’ll find at each one, and the practical details you need to plan a visit. We link each memorial’s official page so you can check current hours before you go (facts checked October 2026).
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The 9/11 Memorial and Museum
The 9/11 Memorial sits where the Twin Towers once stood in Lower Manhattan. It opened in 2011, on the tenth anniversary of the attacks. Two reflecting pools, each nearly an acre in size, occupy the footprints of the original towers. Water falls down the sides into the pools and then disappears into a square void at the center. The bronze parapets around both pools carry the names of the 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001, and the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993.
The memorial plaza is free to visit. You can walk around both pools, read the names, and spend as long as you like. Every name has a panel address (N or S for the North or South Pool, plus a panel number), and the memorial’s website lets you look up where a name is before you go. Look out for the Survivor Tree, a Callery pear that came through the attacks.
The 9/11 Memorial Museum is a separate, ticketed experience seven stories below the plaza, at the bedrock of the World Trade Center site. It takes you through the events of that day using artifacts, testimonies, and original footage. It is thoughtful and thorough, but it is a heavy experience; we would allow at least two hours. See the museum’s website for current hours and prices.
Getting there: Take the subway to Fulton Street (A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 4, 5) or Cortlandt Street (R, W). It is a short walk from both. Parking downtown is expensive, so public transit is the better option.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial
This memorial in Lower Manhattan is quieter than you might expect. It was dedicated in 1985 at Vietnam Veterans Plaza, off Water Street near the East River, in honor of the 250,000 New Yorkers who served in the armed forces from 1964 to 1975 and especially the 1,741 who died. Its wall of green glass blocks is etched with excerpts from letters written by soldiers and their families during the war. The passages are personal and direct: love letters, requests for care packages, final farewells.
The plaza was redesigned and rededicated in 2001, adding a granite fountain and a Walk of Honor with the names of the 1,741 New Yorkers who died. It is a public plaza and free to visit, and it is rarely crowded. This is one of the more overlooked memorials in the city, which is partly what makes it worth seeking out.
Getting there: Take the subway to Whitehall Street (R, W) or Wall Street (2, 3). From either stop it is a short walk.
The African Burial Ground National Monument
In 1991, survey work before construction of a federal office tower at 290 Broadway uncovered human remains 30 feet below street level. They belonged to the African Burial Ground, a six-acre cemetery used from the 1630s to 1795 by free and enslaved Africans in colonial New York. The National Park Service calls it the earliest and largest African burial ground rediscovered in the United States. It was designated a National Monument in 2006.
The outdoor memorial on Duane Street has a tall granite ancestral chamber inscribed “For all those who were lost, for all those who were stolen, for all those who were left behind, for all those who were not forgotten,” beside a circular wall and the grass where the ancestral remains were reinterred. There is also a visitor center inside the federal building at 290 Broadway, which tells the broader story of enslaved Africans in New York. Both are free; the days they open vary through the year, so check the NPS visit page before you go, where you can also reserve a ranger-led tour.
Getting there: Take the subway to Chambers Street (A, C) or City Hall (R, W). Both are within a five-minute walk.
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The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument
On Riverside Drive at 89th Street, overlooking the Hudson River, stands the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, which honors the New Yorkers who served the Union in the Civil War. It was unveiled on Memorial Day 1902 and modeled on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. A cylinder of white marble ringed by twelve Corinthian columns, it stands around 100 feet tall, and the plinths by the south stairs list the New York volunteer regiments, Union generals and the battles they led.
The monument is rarely on tourist itineraries, but it sits in a lovely stretch of Riverside Park and makes a worthwhile stop if you are on the Upper West Side. One thing to know: the Riverside Park Conservancy says the monument itself was sealed off in 2018 for safety pending repair, and the city set aside funding for its restoration in 2023 (checked October 2026). You can still see it from the plaza and Riverside Drive, and the benches nearby face the river.
Getting there: Take the subway to 86th Street (1 train) and walk four blocks west to Riverside Drive.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial
New York’s Korean War Veterans Memorial is in the Battery, at the southern tip of Manhattan. It was dedicated on June 25, 1991, the anniversary of the start of the war. Designed by Mac Adams, it is a 15-foot black granite stele with the shape of a soldier cut out of its center. Known as “The Universal Soldier,” the silhouette lets you look straight through the monument toward the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The Battery itself is worth visiting for its views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty, and it has many other monuments along its paths. Combining the Korean War Veterans Memorial with a walk around the Battery makes for a good half-day in Lower Manhattan. The park is free.
Getting there: Take the subway to Bowling Green (4, 5) or South Ferry (1). The Battery is a five-minute walk from either.
General Grant National Memorial (Grant’s Tomb)
Two miles north of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, in Riverside Park, stands the General Grant National Memorial, the final resting place of Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia. Grant led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War and then served two terms as president. According to the National Park Service, around 90,000 people donated more than $600,000 to build it, the largest public fundraising effort of its time. Designed by John Duncan and completed in 1897, it is still the largest mausoleum in North America.
Inside, two granite sarcophagi rest in the crypt, with bronze busts of Union generals such as William T. Sherman in the niches around them, and mosaics in the tomb show Vicksburg, Chattanooga and Appomattox. Over the entrance are the words “Let Us Have Peace.” Admission is free and no reservation is needed; see the NPS visit page for current opening times, which change with the seasons.
Getting there: Take the 1 train to 116th Street or 125th Street and walk west to Riverside Drive at 122nd Street.
Tips for Visiting New York Memorials
A few things worth knowing before you go:
- Book the 9/11 Museum in advance. Lines can be long on weekends and during school vacations. Online booking is straightforward and saves time at the entrance.
- Weekday mornings are quieter. Most of these sites are visited by school groups and tour parties during the day. Arriving early on a weekday gives you more space and a quieter atmosphere.
- Photography is allowed at all of the outdoor memorials. Inside the 9/11 Museum there are some restricted areas, and the rules are clearly marked.
- Children are welcome at all these sites, though the 9/11 Museum in particular covers difficult material. Many families choose to visit the outdoor memorial only and skip the museum for younger children.
- Combine sites with a walk. The African Burial Ground, the 9/11 Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Korean War Veterans Memorial are all in Lower Manhattan, within walking distance of each other. A morning spent moving between them gives a layered sense of the city’s history. Uptown, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument and Grant’s Tomb pair well on a walk through Riverside Park.
New York’s memorials are not tourist attractions in the usual sense. They are places where real history is held, where names are kept, and where the city takes a moment to remember what it has been through. Each one is worth your time.
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