President Barack Obama, after touring the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on Thursday, spoke at the dedication in front of survivors and the relatives of those who died in the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

9/11 Museum Unveiled

“We come together,” Obama said in his speech. “We stand at the footprint of two mighty towers. We can look at their names, hear their voices."

The museum, which doesn’t open for the public until next Wednesday, features photographs of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attack on American soil, the mangled remains of Fire Dept. of New York Ladder Company 3’s truck, steel beams from the leveled World Trade Center towers, and roughly 10,000 “ordinary objects” found in the rubble of the buildings’ collapse.

Shoes, wallets, family photos and stuffed animals of survivors and those who were lost on 9/11 are among the objects on display in the museum. A red bandana that belonged to Welles Crowther, the “man in the red bandana,” who saved a number of lives but didn’t manage to get himself to safety in time, is on display as well.

“It is astounding to see,” said former President Bill Clinton, who attended the dedication with his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I never imagined when they started this, that the end result would be this. New Yorkers should be very proud of this. I hope every American gets to see it.”

Before the museum opens to the public next week, charging visitors $24 for admission, it will be open around the clock for 9/11 survivors, relatives of the victims, first responders and those who lived in Lower Manhattan at the time of the attack.

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