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Remembering 25 years ago at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum

Officials say the museum doesn't just serve as a reminder, but a way for a new generation to never forget.

Julia Burns

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Sep 7, 2026, 7:21 AM

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If you ask any New Yorker where they were when the first plane hit the twin towers on September 11, 2001, they remember it like it was yesterday.

“I was across the river in Brooklyn. I was watching on TV what was going on here. And it was unavoidable. The realization that important things were happening around us. Tragedy was occurring because of what had happened, and that the world had changed," said director of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum Clifford Chanin.

Chanin says the museum doesn't just serve as a reminder, but a way for a new generation to never forget.

“It's all well and good for people of a certain age like me to say we will never forget because we never will. But if we talk to young people who have nothing to remember, therefore nothing to forget. It's critical that we bring them the story, because that's how they will remember and commit themselves to never forget," said Chanin.

The museum opened in May 2014. Now, the mission of the museum also takes on visitors who weren't there to experience it.

"We have that technology in relation to 9/11 and the archive and documents created on that day. The power of that material I don’t think is going to fade overtime," said Chanin.

Chanin says the museum doesn't just preserve what happened, but also what happened next. 

“New York City was determined to come back. There was terrible pain. There was anger. It represents the commitment of people to take that blow, to grieve, to mourn, to remember, but to move forward as well. And the museum, as I said, is a symbol of that resilience," said Chanin.

For more information on the 9/11 memorial and museum you can go to their website.

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