The descent to bedrock
Visitors enter through the Pavilion on the Memorial and follow a ramp down into the original foundations of the World Trade Center. At the end of the ramp are the Survivors’ Stairs, which gave people fleeing the site an exit on 11 September 2001.
Foundation Hall
Foundation Hall, the largest space in the museum, is bounded by a surviving section of the slurry wall, built in the 1960s to hold back the Hudson River. At its centre stands the Last Column, a 36-foot steel column covered with inscriptions by rescue and recovery workers, removed from the site on 30 May 2002.
Two core exhibitions
In the South Tower footprint, In Memoriam commemorates the victims of 11 September 2001 and 26 February 1993. In the North Tower footprint, the historical exhibition tells the story of the day, what led to it and its aftermath. Most visits take 45 to 90 minutes.



