By Anna Sanders Staten Island Advance
Family members of the nearly 3,000 victims who perished in the terrorist attacks are invited to visit the National September 11 Museum on the 13th anniversary next month.
Family of the victims of the 2001 and 1993 World Trade Center attacks can tour the museum from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the annual day of remembrance, museum officials said. The museum will be closed to other visitors.
It’s still unclear if the gift shop, which was criticized for some merchandise, will be open that day.
This year marks the first anniversary since the museum opened in May, but the focus of the September 11 anniversary ceremony will remain on a memorial roll call of the victims, organizers said.
Apart from the museum being open to families, aspects of the anniversary ceremony won’t change. Like in past years, the ceremony will be “exclusively” for victims’ family members, a memorial spokeswoman said. There will be six moments of silence marking when the World Trade Center towers were struck and fell, when the Pentagon was attacked and when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.
At dusk, the “Tribute in Light” will take place with two beams of blue light symbolizing the Twin Towers shining into the sky until dawn the next day. The projections are visible within a 60-mile radius.
This is the first anniversary since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office. A spokeswoman said de Blasio will attend the reading of the names.
On September 10, families, survivors, 9/11 rescue and recovery workers, active duty first responders, and Lower Manhattan residents and business owners are invited to visit the museum for free starting at 5 p.m.
The museum houses artifacts, photographs, and audio and visual recordings from the attacks as well as tributes and recorded testimonials. There also is a space inside the museum where the unidentified remains of victims are kept in repose; families are the only visitors allowed to enter.
