Tumbleweeds no longer roll through downtown Oklahoma City, but the city center remains a quiet affair, with low-key skyscrapers and little in the way of commercial activity. The hub of activity is around the renovated warehouses of Bricktown , on Sheridan Avenue east of the Santa Fe Railroad, which has developed into a reasonable eating and nightlife center. Myriad Gardens on Sheridan Avenue, prettily landscaped with hills, gardens and waterways, gives great views across to the brick-towered downtown skyline, and on a sunny day the Crystal Bridge tropical botanical garden, in a glass tube in the middle of the park, abounds in garish exotic blooms (daily 9am-6pm; $4).
A few blocks north, at 620 N Harvey Ave, where the Federal Building stood until its 1995 bombing, throngs of tourists mill somberly about the Oklahoma City National Memorial (open 24hrs; free). The site, which dominates the center of the city, includes a field of 168 empty bronze and glass chairs, and a black reflecting pool flanked by two massive gold barriers marking 9.01-9.03am - the moment of destruction. Nearby, an elm tree that continued to bloom after the blast stands as a lone sentinel. The Memorial Center Museum behind it (Mon-Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 1-6pm; $7), is also worth a visit, recounting the tragedy in gruesome detail, with TV news coverage from the day, interviews with survivors and items pulled from the wreckage, such as shredded clothing, cracked coffee mugs and twisted filing cabinets. Other sections describe the ensuing FBI investigation and McVeigh trial, and on the ground floor are tributes to the victims, and gift shop. Outside, the complex is surrounded by a chain link fence weighed down by tokens and talismans left by grief-stricken mourners.
