President Barack Obama and other dignitaries were in attendance Thursday for an emotional dedication ceremony of the National September 11th Memorial Museum in Lower Manhattan.
Mayors Bill de Blasio, Michael Bloomberg, and Rudy Giuliani shared the stage with survivors and families who lost loved ones in the attack.
The president said the museum would help Americans remember the heroic responses to the tragedy.
“It is an honor for us to join in your memories, to recall and to reflect, but above all to reaffirm the true spirit of 9/11: Love, compassion sacrifice,” Obama said.
“It is our greatest hope that when people come here and see Wells’ red bandana they will remember how people helped each other that day. And we hope that they will be inspired to the same in ways both big and small,” said Allison Crowther, whose son was lost in the attacks.
The museum will be open 24 hours a day for the next week so families, first responders and survivors can visit any time they want.
It officially opens to the public next Wednesday, but opening day tickets are already sold out.
The $ 24 admission price is raising some eyebrows.
“Especially in the initial opening when a lot of locals haven’t seen it, I think it’d be valuable to make it as accessible as possible to the people that 9/11 really impacted,” said one New Yorker.
“The respect is not to give the money. The respect is to go and pray and be with them,” said another New Yorker.
“It’s important to really commemorate and do a beautiful beautiful job of just the way the city was able to come back together after such a horrific tragedy,” added a third New Yorker.
The museum extends 70 feet underground to the Twin Towers’ foundations.
Exhibits include damaged fire trucks, the survivors staircase used by hundreds to escape the burning towers, and a mangled piece of the antenna from atop the trade center.
Meantime, some victims’ families headed to Zuccotti Park this morning to protest the relocation of unidentified remains to the museum.
They gathered last night for a candlelight vigil in Lower Manhattan.
Relatives are concerned the repository – which is located 70 feet below ground – may be prone to flooding.
Some would prefer the remains be placed in a mausoleum above ground, while others are concerned the remains are being treated as a tourist attraction.
Victims family members will be given access to the repository, but other visitors will not be allowed.
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