National September 11 Museum nears completion, set to open next year

Just days before the 12th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, organizers at Ground Zero said Friday that the National September 11 Museum is almost complete. They expect it to open next year.

It has taken three years to put the museum, which is located underground where the Twin Towers once stood, and officials are putting the last pieces together, reports The New York Daily News. Some of the relics that will be on display include the original stairway at the World Trade Center Plaza and the NYFD fire engine No. 21 truck.

Museum director Alice Greenwald noted that every piece has its own story. “Whether monumental pieces of steel structure from the twin towers ... or intimate objects like a watch worn by a passenger aboard one of the hijacked planes, artifacts have the power to connect us to history with an unmatched immediacy,” she said.

As The Associated Press notes, the first pieces visitors will see when they come in are two huge pieces of steel that were at the North Tower. They are now rusty red and were used as the starting point for the museum design.

“They're so large — about 70 feet tall — that we built the museum around them,” museum president Joseph Daniels told the AP.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the museum will give New Yorkers a preview of the relics there in a book of photos and essays that will be released on Tuesday.

Officials said Friday that they plan to open the museum in Spring 2014.

Daniels told the Daily News, “These artifacts will preserve the powerful story of 9/11 for generations to come.”

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