Philly's New 9/11 Memorial: Good, But...

After I toured Eastern State Penitentiary this afternoon (pics will be posted at some point), I walked down towards Center City and decided to check out the city's new 9/11 memorial, which was dedicated on Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The steel beam, from one of the Twin Towers, isn't lying flat or standing straight because the artist says it symbolizes how our society is not as secure post-9/11. It's set in granite and includes plaques with the names of three Philadelphia residents who died in the attacks.

It's a little stunning to actually see a piece of one of those buildings. The placement of the beam is clever. It's certainly a fitting memorial. However...
I'm not sure the location of the memorial was the best choice. It's on the Schuylkill River Trail at Chestnut Street. To get on to the trail at Chestnut Street you have to go down a long ramp that actually goes in one direction, then pivots back to the area it started from -- sort of like this > -- but at river level. Once you do that, there's no sign to direct you to its exact location. Even though I've been on the trail before, when I went today I walked right by the memorial without even noticing it. I had spotted a flagpole with a U.S. flag before I went down the ramp, and assumed the memorial was there. It wasn't. After walking down to Walnut Street, I turned and went back towards Chestnut, and then I found it.

And as you can see from the two pictures above, on one side, beside the fence, you have train tracks. I happened to be there at the same time a freight train was passing. On the other side, across the river, is the Schuylkill Expressway. So between the train and the traffic, it seemed like there was a constant hum of noise. It's completely different than the atmosphere at the 9/11 Memorial in New York. It's not the worst location, as you can see in the pictures below...

...but it's not as easily accessible as some other sites, and certainly not as quiet (perhaps somewhere in Fairmount Park would have been better). And it would be nice if some new signs were put up nearby to make it easier to find.