After years of planning, the national museum created to document and memorialize the devastating attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, will open to the public on May 21.
The museum has set aside the preceding week as a Dedication Period, when the museum will be kept open 24 hours a day so that survivors, the families of victims, first responders, and neighborhood residents and business owners can preview the 110,000 square feet of exhibitions and tributes that document the history and memorialize the nearly 3,000 people killed that day.
“We are honored that the first people to experience this Museum will be the men and women who came to our aid and protected us on 9/11, the families of the innocent victims killed that day, and the survivors who lived to tell the tale of an unimaginable horror so that we may learn from the past,” said former mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is also chairman of the memorial. “The Museum is built upon their incredible stories.”
The National September 11 Memorial Museum extends seven stories underground to the schist bedrock. It includes thousands of artifacts, as small as a wedding ring and as large as a smashed fire truck. The historical exhibit details the terrorist attacks and the events that led up to them, as well as an exploration of the aftermath. A section of the museum is dedicated to honoring the dead.
The museum will have a $24 admission fee and tickets will be available starting March 26 at www.911memorial.org. Families of the victims as well as registered rescue and recovery workers can visit for free, though they will need a reservation.
The museum is adjacent to the 9/11 memorial, which consists of twin pools and waterfalls in the footprints of the tower and the names of people who died. It opened in 2011. Admission to the memorial is free although visitors must secure passes, which can be reserved in advance or are available at a nearby visitors’ center.
