Accessibility At The 9/11 Museum
Most of the public transportation in lower Manhattan, including buses and trains, have wheelchair-accessible entrances. The following transports are accessible by wheelchair.
- NYC Transit Buses:M5, M9, and M20
- Train stations: Chambers Street 1, 2, 3 subway stations, WTC Cortlandt 1 subway station, Fulton Street A, C, J, Z, 2, 3, 5 subway station, and Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall 4, 5, 6 subway station.
The accessible pick-up/drop-off location for privately owned vehicles is at the intersection of Liberty Street and Trinity Place.
Ramp: There is a ramp that leads towards the overlook that can be easily navigated by staying on the right. Visitors can also use the elevator to reach the lower levels.
Wheelchair Accessibility: There are several entrances to the Memorial, marked with the wheelchair symbol. All commonly used mobility devices are also permitted on the premises. Visitors can also make use of the manual wheelchairs and wheeled walkers available free of charge at the reception.
Navigation: Every level of the museum has accessible escalators and elevators, next to the stairs. All areas open to the public are wheelchair accessible. The Memorial pool parapets are designed so a seated or shorter person may have the same view of the Memorial voids, and can access the inscriptions.
Service Animals: Service animals are welcome on the premises.
Real-Time Captioning: Real-time captioning for events and programs are available with a 3-week notice.
Remembering The Story Of 9/11
Exhibition spaces, conceived by lead designers Thinc Design in collaboration with Local Projects, provide visitors with an indelible encounter with the story of the attacks situated within the authentic site of the World Trade Center. The Museums core exhibitions are located inside the footprints of the North and South Towers. In Memoriam, the Museums memorial exhibition in the South Tower footprint, commemorates the victims of the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993.
In the North Tower footprint, the Museums historical exhibition designed by Layman Design, , revisits the events of that day and explores the attacks historical antecedents as well as their aftermath and lasting repercussions. Layman Design was brought on board in 2010 to advance and finalize design development of the historical exhibition.
The Museum also has two galleries for rotating, temporary exhibitions. The South Tower Gallery in the South Tower footprint is dedicated to exhibitions of photography and artwork. The Special Exhibitions Gallery, in the North Tower footprint, explores topics of contemporary significance that speak to the ongoing ramifications of 9/11. This gallery is temporarily closed.
The National September 11th Museum
Read more about the museum here.
Placed inside the Museum, but visible from the Memorial Plaza, are two 70-foot high, 50 ton steel beams that were part of the base of the North Tower.
These beams, salvaged from the wreckage of the fallen towers, are known as tridents because of their three-pronged tops .
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/11 Museum Still Months Away From Opening
NEW YORK – Seven stories below street level, Joe Daniels showed us the 9/11 museum, still under construction. Daniels, president of the , thinks the 10 million people who have visited the World Trade Center memorial since it opened two years ago will come back.
“I think those are our most likely visitors,” Daniels said.
While the museum won’t be finished by this year’s 12th anniversary of the 2001 terrorists attacks, Daniels promises it will be built in eight months.
“There is no doubt that it will be done by next spring in advance of the next anniversary,” he said.
Financial disputes with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the transportation agency that owns the 16-acre World Trade Center site and oversees its rebuilding, brought construction to a standstill for monthslast year.
The construction is also complicated. The underground museum is being built under the eight acre memorial plaza, where a new 1,776-foot tower topped out this May with three other towers on the way up. A new transit hub is being built about a block from the museum entrance.
“I’d put us in the 75 percent-there stage, although this last 25 percent is some of the most difficult work, which is the installation of the exhibitory itself,” Daniels said.
Demolished fire trucks and ambulances and other chunks of salvaged steel are already in place.
“I think people will be angry they’ll be sad they’ll be thoughtful they’ll be interested,” Hennes said.
The Design Of The Memorial
Memorial Pools
The focal points of the Memorial are two pools, each nearly an acre in size, that sit in the footprints of the former North and South Towers. The pools contain the largest manmade waterfalls in North America, each descending 30 feet into a square basin. From there, the water in each pool drops another 20 feet and disappears into a smaller, central void.
According to the architect, Michael Arad, the pools represent absence made visible. Although water flows into the voids, they can never be filled. The sound of the cascading water makes the pools a place of tranquility and contemplation separate from the bustling noises of the city.
The names of the 2,983 people who were killed in the 2001 and 1993 terrorist attacks are inscribed on bronze parapets edging the memorial pools. The names are grouped by the locations and circumstances in which victims found themselves during the attacks. The North Pool parapets include the names of those who were killed at the North Tower, on hijacked Flight 11, and in the 1993 bombing. The South Pool parapets include the names of first responders as well as victims who were killed at the South Tower, on hijacked Flight 175, at the Pentagon, on hijacked Flight 77, and on hijacked Flight 93.
The Survivor Tree
9/11 Memorial Glade
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Th Anniversary Memorial Services
The 20th anniversary came just weeks after a hastened withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan following the 2021 Taliban offensive in which the Taliban reconquered most of Afghanistan. It was in this climate that former President George W. Bush said in a speech at the Shanksville memorial that both foreign and domestic extremists were “children of the same foul spirit”, a comparison which angered some right-wing politicians and media figures. President Joe Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and their respective first ladies attended a memorial ceremony together at the National September 11 Memorial, where the World Trade Center towers fell two decades prior. Biden then went on to visit the other two 9/11 crash sites, stopping at the national memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and finally, the Pentagon. Former President Donald Trump visited police and fire houses in New York City to commemorate the attack.
The Acting Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Philip Reeker attended a special changing of the guard at Windsor Castle during which the US National Anthem was performed.
Connecting With The Past
The Museums ramped descent offers views into the vast cavity of the original World Trade Center complex. After 9/11, preservationists, survivors, and other advocates fought to ensure that the World Trade Center site and its archaeological remnants were saved. Typically, properties are not considered for the National Register of Historic Places until 50 years after they achieve historical significance. The World Trade Center site, however, became eligible in February 2004 after it was deemed to be exceptionally significant in the history of the United States as the location of events that immediately and profoundly influenced the lives of millions of American citizens.
One of these historic remnants, known as the Survivors Stairs, lies at the end of the ramp. On 9/11, this staircase at the edge of the elevated World Trade Center Plaza provided an unobstructed exit for people fleeing the site. After 9/11, the stairs were slated for demolition but were saved during the federal review process of the sites historic assets. As visitors arrive at the main exhibition and education level, they follow the stairs that led hundreds of survivors to safety on September 11, 2001.
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One World Trade Center
During the reconstruction of Ground Zero, new skyscrapers were built to form the current World Trade Center. The most famous of these is One World Trade Center, also called the Freedom Tower. This is not only the tallest building in New York but also in the United States and the Western Hemisphere. You can also visit One World Observatory, the highest observation deck in New York. From the 102nd floor, visitors have a 360-degree view of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and Midtown Manhattan.
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Officials with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum announced Monday that the long-awaited museum will open its doors to the public on May 21 after a six-day preview period for people directly affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News report.
Initially planned to open in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, the subterranean museum was set back for years by political disputes over funding and damage from Hurricane Sandy. Some 9/11 victims families have criticized its $24 admission fee, which project officials maintain is necessary to cover its $63-million operating budget in the absence of funding from New York City or the federal government.
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In 9/11 Museum To Open Next Spring Vastness And Serenity And Awe And Grief
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You thought it was as bad as it would get, and then it got worse.
Alice M. Greenwald, the director of the National September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center, was recalling a feeling common among Americans on Sept. 11, 2001.
But she was also describing how the galleries depicting that days events will unfold for visitors.
Where much of the underground space is astonishingly vast and serene, the historical exhibition, contained within the volume once occupied by the north tower, is cramped and irregular. Deliberately labyrinthine, it is meant to jar those who see it.
Rounding one corner, a visitor will suddenly come upon the rear end of Engine 21 , looking merely like an old fire truck that has seen a lot of action. A few steps more into the gallery, however, and it is revealed as a mechanical carcass.
The cab, all its trim and livery burned away, resembles a skull.
Transitions like this by turns shocking and calming, distressing and heartening, awe-inspiring and grief-inducing compose the memorial museum.
Steven M. Davis, a partner in Davis Brody Bond, which designed the museum, said he and his colleagues had been guided by the principles of memory, authenticity, scale and emotion.
The journey begins in a pavilion on Greenwich Street, designed by Snohetta.
/11 Memorial In New York
The 9/11 Memorial in New York, at Ground Zero, is the memorial commemorating the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the victims of the earlier WTC bombing on 26 February 1993. The monument was opened to the public on September 11th 2011. Anyone can visit the 9/11 memorial for free.
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The 9/11 Memorial Museum Opens To The Public
So far, the 9/11 Memorial Museum has provoked a range of reactions. Now, you can come to your own verdict.
The National September 11 Memorial Museum will finally open its doors to the public on Wednesday, May 21. For years, there have been tensions over how any memorial at this site would look and operate. The museum was supposed to open in 2012 but disagreements among the state and local, public and private authorities that had a hand in its creation delayed the opening until now.
By allaccounts, visiting the museum is an emotional experience. The displays includes artifacts, large and small, from firetrucks to personal objects of people who worked in the two towers. But the road to this museums opening has been fraught with controversy, and that doesnt look to abate anytime in the near future.
Just a few months ago, for example, clergy members registered their distaste for “The Rise of Al Qaeda,” a film shown at the museum, which objectors felt unfairly depicted a link between Islam and terrorism. Right now, an atheist advocacy group is pushing for the removal from the museum of the so-called Ground Zero Cross, a large fragment of steel beams in the shape of a cross.
Steve Kandell, a Buzzfeed editor, lost his sister in the attacks, and wrote a heart-rending account of his visit to the museum during the days that it was open solely to people who had been directly affected by the events of 9/11. Kandell writes:
Swamp White Oaks And The Survivor Tree
Throughout the memorial are several hundred swamp white oak trees, which, according to the 911 Memorial website, were chosen for their durability as well as their variety of heights and leaf colors.
However, there is one particular tree that stands out. Among the rubble of the fallen towers, an 8 foot Callery pear tree was found alive, but just barely.
Removed from the rubble, the tree was nursed back to health and replanted in the plaza. It has since flourished and has grown to 30 feet in height.
The tree embodies the story of survival and resilience important to the history of the World Trade Center and 9/11.
From the Survivor Tree, walk towards the glass atrium of the museum where you can view the Tridents.
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The Waterfalls And Reflecting Pools
These 2 enormous pools with cascading waterfalls, designed by architect Michael Arad, and titled “Reflecting Absence”.
They are set at Ground Zero into the exact footprints of the original North and South World Trade Center Towers, which were destroyed on September 11, 2001.
At 1 acre in surface area and 32 feet deep, these are the largest man-made waterfalls in North America.
The pools are one of the most moving memorials in the world.
These pools represent the void left in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, both with the loss of life as well as in the soul of the city and the country.
It is nearly impossible to view the pools without experiencing some sort of emotions. We recommend visiting at twilight or night to see the pools illuminated.
The 911 Memorial honors those who died on 9/11, including those who perished at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the victims of hijacked Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Also included are the oft-forgotten six victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The victims’ names are inscribed around the bronze edges of the pools. Instead of being arranged alphabetically, the names are organized by meaningful adjacencies.”
Names are grouped together based on their relationships with other victims, such as co-workers, family members, friends, and even those who commuted together.
As with the voids represented by the pools and waterfalls, so are the names indented.
Arrangement Of The Victims’ Names
The names of 2,983 victims are inscribed on 152 bronze parapets on the memorial pools: 2,977 killed in the September 11 attacks and six killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The names are arranged according to an algorithm, creating “meaningful adjacencies” based on relationshipsproximity at the time of the attacks, company or organization affiliations and in response to about 1,200 requests from family members. Software made by Local Projects implemented the arrangement. All names are stylized with Optima typeface for a “balanced appearance”.
The names of the employees and visitors in the North Tower , the passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11 , and the employees and a visitor of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing are around the perimeter of the North Pool. The names of the employees and visitors in the South Tower , the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 175 , the employees, visitors, and bystanders in the immediate vicinity of the North and South Towers, the first responders who died during rescue operations, the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93 and American Airlines Flight 77 , and the employees at the Pentagon are around the perimeter of the South Pool. Company names are not included, but company employees and visitors are listed together. Passengers on the four flights are listed under their flight numbers, and first responders with their units.
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Visiting The Memorial And Museum
The National September 11 Memorial drew big crowds when it opened to the public Sept. 12, 2011, following a special dedication ceremony for the families of the victims of 9/11 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. In order to accommodate the crowds and ensure the safety of visitors, the facilities were highly monitored by law enforcement officials, and all tickets had to be reserved in advance online.
When visitors arrive, they’re drawn to the two large reflecting pools, which cover about an acre apiece. There are 2,983 names inscribed along the bronze parapets that ring the four walls of the North and South pools . The easiest way to find a particular name is to look it up online before a visit. Those people whose deaths were linked to the World Trade Center North, Flight 11 and the attack on Feb. 26, 1993, are listed at the North Pool. Those whose deaths were linked to the World Trade Center South, the first responders, Flight 175, Flight 77, Flight 93 and the Pentagon encircle the perimeter of the South Pool.
The foundation’s web site provides a comprehensive searchable database, and once you find the name of a person you’re looking for, it provides the location of the name on the memorial and some basic biographical information about the person, often including a photo of him or her and links to any requested neighbors among the other names.
Originally Published: Aug 23, 2011
