President Obama dedicated the new September 11 museum during an emotional ceremony that moved attendees to tears Thursday morning, calling the underground memorial a “sacred place of healing and hope” to recover from the nation’s worst terrorist attack.
Obama said the multi-level museum would “reaffirm the true spirit of 9/11 — love, compassion, sacrifice — and enshrine it forever in the heart of our nation.”
Standing in front of the famed World Trade Center slurry wall, Obama told a somber group of survivors, victims’ relatives and first responders: “Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us.”
“Nothing can change who we are as Americans,” he said.
Before his speech, the president and First Lady Michelle Obama toured the exhibits, which include a mangled fire truck and a memorial wall with photos of victims.
“I think all who come here will find it to be a profound and moving experience,” he said.
Obama also hailed the heroes who emerged from the al Qaeda attacks that felled the Twin Towers and damaged the Pentagon.
He cited the rescue and recovery workers who rushed to Ground Zero, the passengers and crew who stormed a hijacked plane’s cockpit over the Pennsylvania field where it crashed, and the military members “who have served with honor in more than a decade of war” since then.
Obama paid special tribute to Welles Crowther, who wore a red bandanna over his face as he helped lead people out of the World Trade Center’s south tower before it collapsed, killing him and hundreds more.
“Welles was just 24 years old, with a broad smile and a bright future,” Obama said.
“He worked in finance, but he had also been a volunteer firefighter, and … he spent his last moments saving lives.”
Crowther’s mom, Alison Crowther, walked on stage with one of the women he rescued, Ling Young, whose sleeveless dress showed off burns she suffered on her right arm.
“It was very hard for me to come here today, but I wanted to come and say, ‘Thank you,'” Young said.
Alison said her son “believed that we are all connected as one family, that we’re all here to look out and care for one another.”
She also said she recognized her son in news accounts of the kerchief-clad hero, saying he had carried a red bandanna with him since childhood — and that she donated one for an exhibit to inspire visitors to follow his example.
“That is the true legacy of Sept. 11,” she said.
Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who introduced Obama, said the museum would “stand alongside the fields of Gettysburg, the waters of Pearl Harbor and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial” in honoring acts of courage and compassion.
“Walking through this museum can be difficult at times, but it is impossible to leave without being inspired,” he said.
The museum opens to the public on May 21.
Retired Fire Department Lt. Mickey Cross described being trapped for hours with 13 other firefighters and cops in the wreckage of the north tower — and then joining the recovery effort after being rescued.
“There was a real sense of caring for each other,” he said.
Ada Dolch, a school principal whose sister died at the trade center, recalled turning her grief into inspiration to open a school in Afghanistan.
“What a kick in the head to Osama bin Laden!” she said.
Kayla Bergeron remembered walking down 68 flights of stairs in the north tower, amid confusion and fear that there was no way out.
Her final 38 steps to safety were on an outdoor stairway, which was painstakingly removed from the site and installed between the stairs and escalator to the museum’s lowest level.
“Today, when I think about those stairs, what they represent to me is resiliency,” she said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took part in the ceremony, called it “very moving” afterward, and said the museum was a reminder of both the victims who died and the heroes who responded.
“I would say to every New Yorker: It’s someplace you have to visit, you have to experience,” he said.
“It becomes very personal. They did an amazing job respectfully presenting what happened.”
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani — who became known as “America’s mayor” for his handling of the crisis — said: “It was very hard not to feel very sad.”
“It got you to focus on the life-affirming parts of it,” he said.
“When you’re back in there, it feels like it was yesterday. The emotions come back pretty strong.”
Before the ceremony, Obama walked quietly through an expansive hall with the first lady, Bloomberg, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following behind them.
By turns chilling and heartbreaking, the Ground Zero museum leads people on an unsettling journey through the terrorist attacks, with forays into their lead-up and legacy.
There are scenes of horror, including videos of the skyscrapers collapsing and people falling from them.
But there also are symbols of heroism, ranging from damaged fire trucks to the wristwatch of one of the airline passengers who confronted the hijackers.
Tom and Ann Johnson of Racine, Wis. — whose son Scott, 26, died in the collapse of the south tower — said the museum’s voice recordings were especially moving.
“We have a recording. He was saying, ‘I’m fine. It was the other tower,'” Ann said.
“Four minutes later, the second plane hit.”
Tom added: “You don’t want to put your loss out of your mind. You can’t hide from it.”
Anthoula Katsimatides, whose brother John Katsimatides died in the north tower, said: “I was overcome with emotion just being there.”
“The museum is a very special place because it takes you down and it lifts you up, and takes you down and lifts you up,” she said.
Katsimatides, 42, also said she believed her brother’s unidentified remains were among those entombed “behind the wall with the Virgil quote.”
“I am very, very happy that the remains are being brought from the (medical examiner’s) office on 33rd (Street) and First Avenue and laid to rest where my brother lost his life,” she said.
“The hope is with further technology advances, maybe they can identify something of my brother and so many who have yet to have that.”
Meanwhile, at nearby Zuccotti Park, some Sept. 11 families called on Obama to remove the unidentified remains from the museum.
Sally Regenhard, who lost her son, firefighter Christian Regenhard, 28, vowed to never set foot inside.
“Our loved ones, including my son, were pulled out of that pit of doom and destruction, and now they want to put them back in that pit where they were massacred,” she said.
“They don’t belong there. My son does not belong in the basement of a museum.”
She added: “Burial of the dead is a very sacred act and this is sacrilegious and really goes against the principle of all religions to have these remains inside a museum.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, among the officials in attendance, avoided a potentially awkward moment tied to the unfolding “Bridgegate” scandal when organizers scrapped plans to have him speak following a performance of the classic song “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”
Just before the ceremony, a spokeswoman said that singer Idina Menzel was sick.
She was replaced by fellow Broadway singer and Sept. 11 widow LaChanze, who sang “Amazing Grace,” which she dedicated to her late husband, Calvin Joseph Gooding.