9/11 Memorial Museum to open in May after troubled construction and financial disputes

Museum was delayed due to financing disputes and flooding

Perimeter box columns from the World Trade Center (WTC) installed in the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum (AP)

The long-awaited museum dedicated to the 3,000 victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, will open to the public at the World Trade Center site on May 21, officials announced today.

The 9/11 Memorial Museum, which was delayed due to financing disputes and flooding, will provide a "dignified and reverential setting" for approximately 8,000 unidentified remains of those who died in the 2001 attacks in Manhattan.

After years of planning, financial disputes and construction the museum will include historical artifacts from the attack, including the personal effects of first responders and a mangled fire truck.

Families of those killed in the attacks, along with emergency workers, survivors and other special groups will have a week of 24 hours a day access to the museum before it officially opens to the public.

The museum, which has 110,000 square feet of historical exhibitions, extends seven floors below the ground and details the terrorist attacks, the events that led up to them and the aftermath.

The museum had originally been scheduled for opening in 2011, on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, but flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy combined with a dispute with the site's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, delayed construction.

A recovered FDNY Squad 252 helmet belonging to deceased FDNY member Kevin M. Prior (REUTERS)

"We are honored that the first people to experience this Museum will be the men and women who came to our aid and protected us on 9/11, the families of the innocent victims killed that day, and the survivors who lived to tell the tale of an unimaginable horror so that we may learn from the past,” said former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is also chairman of the memorial.

“The Museum is built upon their incredible stories,” he told the New York Times.

The museum will have a $24 (£14) admission fee and tickets will be available starting March 26 at 911memorial.org.