World Trade Centre Memorial Museum
As part of the whole National September 11 Memorial project, the Museum has been designed as another way to commemorate the lives of those thousands of people who died in the 1993 and the more recent September 11, 2001 attacks. The museum will provide the most extensive documentation of the significance of these attacks and how they continue to influence the American nation. Constructed on the site of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, it is designed with the intention to document the wide scale impact of the 9/11 attacks on the families who lost their loved ones. It is a way to record the day of the attack and all the events in its aftermath.
The Memorial Museum was built with the mission to honor the lives of all those individuals who were killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 as well as the February 26, 1993. It stands as a witness to these terrorist attacks. It’s mission does not only include to recognize all those who were killed in the attacks but also to recognize all those who survived, who helped in the rescue mission and who showed compassion and helped extensively in the aftermath of the attack. As a whole the museum demonstrates to the world the ugly reality of terrorist attacks and how it impacts the lives of not only individuals but the communities as a whole at national and international levels.
The museum is constructed at an area of 110, 000 square feet and this extensive structure stands at the archeological heart of the Memorial site. It uses multimedia displays, archives and various monumental artifacts to tell the story of the men, women and children who lost their lives in these two tragic incidents. It links all the events on the day of the 9/11 attack, including the attack on the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and the Flight 93, plus it also demonstrates the events in the aftermath of the attack using emotional and sentimental stories of loss, bravery and compassion. The museum stands as a testimony of how a nation recovers from such extensive loss.
The Museum is constructed in such a manner that it has also preserved some of the remnants of the original World Trade Centre twin towers. As visitors will first enter the museum, they will walk downwards on a slightly sloped ramp that descent to the core exhibition site. The descent has been built using ramps which were used in the original construction of the World Trade Centre and the ramps used for the cleaning up of debris after the attack. Same ramps were also later used on the various ceremonies of 9/11 attack for the families of victims. As the visitors’ descent along the ramp, the first glimpses of their experience at this unique museum can be seen.
The core exhibition is composed of displays that exhibit the historic events that led to the construction of World Trade Centre and it also demonstrates the events on the day of its demise. The descent also gives the visitors a view of the remnants of the famous Vesey Street stairway. This Vesey Street stairway was later termed as the ‘Survivors Stairs” because hundreds fled down this staircase as they tried to save their lives on the day of the attack. The Museum also contains remnants of some structural columns of the original Twin Towers. They now represent the footprints of the Twin Towers.