Updated

Updated · BBC.com · Sep 11

9/11 Memorial Museum Preserves 2001 Attacks With 2 Landmark Artifacts Underground

Updated

Updated · BBC.com · Sep 11

9/11 Memorial Museum Preserves 2001 Attacks With 2 Landmark Artifacts Underground

Q: Why was a seventh moment of silence quietly added to the 25th-anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero this year?

It was added to recognize the thousands of people who died in the years after Sept. 11 from illnesses or injuries linked to toxic exposure at Ground Zero and other attack sites. Until this year, the Ground Zero ceremony observed six moments of silence marking the key fatal moments of Sept. 11, 2001: the four plane impacts and the collapses of the Twin Towers. The new seventh moment reflects a broader understanding of the attacks’ long-term human toll, especially on first responders, recovery workers, residents, office workers and others exposed to dust, smoke and debris. That toll is large. Data cited by the World Trade Center Health Program and other reporting show that more people have now died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day of the attacks. Thousands have died, and tens of thousands have been diagnosed with cancers, respiratory disease and other conditions tied to that exposure. Families and advocates have pushed for this recognition for years, arguing that “9/11 did not end on 9/11.” The added moment of silence is meant to formally include those later deaths in the public act of remembrance and to acknowledge that, for many families, the loss came years after the attacks themselves.

3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Sep 11

Beneath the memorial plaza, the 9/11 Memorial Museum centers its documentation of the 2001 attacks and 1993 World Trade Center bombing on artifacts, photographs, video, personal stories and interactive exhibits.
At bedrock, architects built monumental spaces around remnants of the original site, including the Survivors’ Stairs that carried hundreds to safety and a massive retaining wall built in the 1960s to hold back the Hudson River.
Two of the museum’s most striking objects are a partially crushed fire truck and the Last Column—the final piece of steel removed as the site was cleared.
Rotating galleries and large-scale memorial artworks widen the museum’s role from preserving physical wreckage to remembering victims and explaining both attacks in historical context.