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Rising from the ashes of the former buildings is the new One World Trade Center.

day from all 50 states and around the world. The 110,000-square-foot exhibition portion of the museum is mostly located beneath the memorial plaza and contains more than 67,500 items, including 17,200 artifacts, and more than 44,000 print and digital images. Physical remnants — including a New York Fire Department Ladder 3 firetruck missing its cab, personal items like watches and shoes, photos that once sat on desks, battered fire helmets — are numerous. The survivors’ stairs and “The Last Column” are unforgettable to visitors because of their poignancy. The Vesey Street stairs served as an escape route for hundreds of people. The column, a beam used by rescuers as a landmark to find missing people and which became covered with memorial tributes, was the last item removed during the recovery and cleanup effort. The messages written on it came to symbolize the determination and dedication of those who participated in those efforts.

Many visitors pause for more than a few moments at the blue-tiled wall where the Roman poet Virgil is quoted, “No day shall erase you from the memory of time,” in a powerful 60-foot eulogy across Memorial Hall. Blacksmith Tom Joyce made each of the 15-inch-high letters from steel appropriated from the wreckage of the towers. Behind the quote, the site-specific art installation titled “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning” by artist Spencer Finch was particularly haunting. The piece contains 2,983 watercolor squares representing the victims.

Memorial Hall, where each and every victim is remembered with photos, biographies, and voice recordings from family members, has a powerful impact on visitors. And it’s where the quiet sobs are most often heard, especially as voicemail recordings are played. Many victims inside the World Trade Center and on Flight 93,

which crashed in Pennsylvania that morning after being hijacked, had time to call loved ones to say a final goodbye. Despite the solemnity of the events detailed at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, there is solace in knowing those faces and voices will never be forgotten. They forever will be a part of the memorial and museum that triumphantly stand for human dignity over human depravity. Former museum CEO Joseph C. Daniels best summed up the site’s historic relevance when the museum opened in 2014: “We built this museum…to make sure that our children’s children’s children know what this country went through on 9/11 and, equally as important, know how we came together to help one another with absolutely limitless compassion.”

If You Go

Reserve your timed tickets online; otherwise, you could be standing in line a long time and tickets do sell out. Also, you will want to visit as early in the day as possible.

The museum is open daily beginning at 9 a.m. Closing hours vary depending on the day. General admission is $17 adults, $12 students and seniors 65-plus, and $7 children. The exterior memorials are free, including the one honoring those whose deaths have been attributed to 9/11-related illnesses.

Download the free audio app for iPhone or Android devices. Produced by Acoustiguide for the 9/11 Museum, the audio tour is narrated by actor Robert De Niro. Be sure to bring a headset or earphones to listen quietly. And if you can’t visit in person, the museum’s website also offers an excellent virtual tour that shows the sheer magnitude of the space inside the museum and many of the exhibits.

911Memorial.com

A native of Laurel and a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi, Mary Ann DeSantis is a freelance writer based in Lady Lake, Fla.