ABOVE: A section of the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York looks at what happened on September 11th 2001 at 9:37am – that’s when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Craig Boswell introduces us to a civilian with a key role in preserving that part of the story.
TORONTO – The Sept. 11 museum opens to the public May 21, preceded by a ceremony Thursday that’s to include President Barack Obama, families and other officials.
WATCH: First look inside the National September 11th Memorial Museum
The exhibits tell the stories of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing, as well as of survivors and first responders. Museum Director Alice Greenwald said the museum is “about understanding our shared humanity,” while former mayor Michael Bloomberg called it a reminder “that freedom is not free.”
The museum’s artifacts range from the monumental, like two of the huge fork-shaped columns from the World Trade Center’s facade, to the intimate: a wedding ring, a victim’s voice mail message.
Some early visitors have already criticized the merchandise on sale in the museum’s gift shop which includes items for sale like a black twin towers hoodie emblazoned with the words, “In darkness we shine brightest,” a silk scarf printed with a full-colour twin towers design and a search & rescue dog toy.
The museum also includes a repository that contains unidentified remains from the disaster.
“But he’s here. I know he’s here,” said Monica Iken, a museum board member who never received her husband’s body, after leaving the repository.
The museum occupies 110,000 square feet on the 16-acre trade center site, tracing the foundations of the twin towers 70 feet underground.
The plaza and museum together cost $700 million to build, subsidized with $390 million in tax-funded grants; officials hope the $24 museum entrance fee – expected to generate about $40 million a year – will help cover operating costs, expected to be about $60 million a year. Fundraising will cover the rest, for now.
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