US president Barack Obama said the true legacy of the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks is the love, compassion and sacrifice demonstrated by those whose lives were claimed.
Mr Obama joined victims' families, survivors and rescue workers today to dedicate the 9/11 Memorial Museum, which he said would be a "sacred place of healing and hope."
The attacks 12 years ago demonstrated that the US is “a nation that stands tall and united and unafraid,” he said. “Nothing could ever break us,” Mr Obama said. “Nothing could change who we are as Americans.”
The museum is on the site where the World Trade Center once stood and almost 3,000 died.
It is seven stories underground near the exposed Manhattan bedrock that once held the Twin Towers’ foundation before terrorists crashed two hijacked jets into the buildings, causing the conflagration that destroyed them.
The museum also pays tribute to the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing of February 1993.
Inside, twisted steel beams, mangled fire trucks, and the teddy bears, family photos and other personal effects that adorned workers’ desks offer silent testimony.
They are juxtaposed with the sounds of sirens, screams of horror and calm radio dispatches of doomed firefighters.
The 110,000 square feet of exhibition space stands adjacent to a memorial that attracts 5 million visitors a year.
It features twin reflecting pools in the space where the towers stood, each almost an acre in size, surrounded by hundreds of oak trees.
Bloomberg