NEW YORK — Both chilling and somber, the long-awaited September 11 Memorial Museum was dedicated Thursday morning in the company of families, survivors and rescuers from 9/11.
The memorial will take visitors back to the day the twin towers of the World Trade Center were felled by hijacked jet planes on a clear September morning nearly 13 years ago.
President Obama said it was built so that “generations yet unborn will never forget.”
“Here we tell their story,” he said. “Of coworkers who led others to safety, of passengers who stormed the cockpit, our men and women in uniform who rushed into an inferno, our first responders who charged up those stairs, a generation of service members, our 9/11 generation who have served with honor in more than a decade of war.”
The sacrifices of that day and the toil to build the museum demonstrates that the United States is “a nation that stands tall and united and unafraid because no act of terror can match the strength or the character of our country,” the President said.
“Nothing can ever break us,” he added. “Nothing can change who we are as Americans.”
The ceremony was attended by dignitaries such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, former New York mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudolph Giuliani and relatives of the more than 2,700 people who perished at the site.
Before his speech, the President and first lady Michelle Obama viewed the museum with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with others. Obama said the museum provided a “profound and moving experience.”
Speakers recounted stories of random acts of kindness and courage that marked the fateful day, of firefighters who died climbing up stairs to save lives, of a young man named Welles Crowther who emerged from the smoke wearing a red bandana and calmly led survivors to the stairs in one of the towers.
“They didn’t know his name,” Obama said. “They didn’t know where he came from but they knew their lives had been saved by the man in the red bandana.”
Crowther led survivors to safety during the chaos of the terrorist attack, before going back up the stairs to save others and losing his life. One of his red bandanas is on display in the museum.
“All those who come here will have a chance to know the sacrifice of a young man, who like so many, gave his life so others might live,” Obama said.
The museum will open to the public May 21.
The museum and memorial plaza, which opened in 2011, were built with $700 million in donations and tax dollars following construction problems and disputes over how best to remember the thousands of lives lost that day.
The site, which has risen up from the ashes of suffering and tragedy, is expected to stand as a symbol of resilience, organizers said.
It holds some 12,500 objects, 1,995 oral histories and 580 hours of film and video.
