Just north of the Brooklyn Bridge , about two city blocks from the dynamic construction zone where the World Trade Center collapsed and crumbled, the African Burial Ground national monument stands about 80 feet tall, amid the crawling traffic, gawking tourists, merchant sellers and pacing traders of Wall Street in Lower Manhattan .

Its history is telling. In 1991, as crews began construction of a 24-story Federal office building, they happened upon human bones. After some investigation, archeologists determined they had discovered a centuries-old, 6.6 acre burial ground -- closed in 1790, then consumed and forgotten by hundreds of years of development and business cycles and change -- holding the remains of an estimated 15,000 free and enslaved Africans. Since then, the initially-planned Federal office building project was shelved, and the now-sacred grounds have gone through various incarnations of state and Federal designation: by 1993, it was called a National Historic Landmark; in 2003, President Bush signed a law placing maintenance duties in the hands of the National Park Service.

What does that mean for its daily existence? Yesterday afternoon, around 5pm, I toured the memorial. To most onlookers, it probably looks like tall black stone art or a giant treble clef standing next to a park in a very crowded section of the city. I asked two high- school-aged boys what they thought they were skateboarding on, and while one said he didn't know, the other said he didn't care. Which brings up some questions: Is it possible to build an overtly unacknowledged memorial? Is it good that kids skateboard on it, people use it as a lunch table, and companies place stickers on it for advertising purposes? That aside, does this memorial represent a clear governmental apology? A footnote to acknowledge a mistake? Is there a difference in the distinction?

Regardless, it's interesting to stand here, in rush hour traffic while limos speed past on one side, and offices of the Supreme Court clear out on the other -- to think about what this place is, why it's here, and who takes advantage of it. Hopefully, since official recognition has been made, development won't overtake it again -- won't destroy the memory of the thousands of once-forgotten Africans interned under one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

http://www.nps.gov/afbg/

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/african-burial-ground-memorial-to-open-on-friday/

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDA133FF93AA35753C1A967958260

http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/afb/shell.html