President Obama marks opening of Sept. 11 museum: ‘Nothing can change who we are as Americans’

Standing in the footprints of the lost Twin Towers, President Obama told New York and the nation Thursday that "nothing can ever break us, nothing can change who we are as Americans."
Speaking at the dedication of the new Sept. 11 museum, Obama told the loved ones of those who died that day that "those we lost live on within us."
Obama spoke after he and First Lady Michelle Obama took a somber tour of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
They viewed the memorial wall with the photos of the nearly 3,000 victims.

JEWEL SAMAD/Pool/Getty ImagesPresident Obama speaks Thursday at the dedication of the 9/11 memorial museum in New York.
They viewed a mangled fire truck and chilling videos of the towers crumbling to dust.
They viewed the twisted steel beams, the teddy bears and family photos that were found in the wreckage.
They bowed their heads beneath the immensity of what happened that dreadful day.


John Angelillo/POOL/REUTERSObama assured the crowd at the ceremony 'nothing can ever break us.'

YouTubeFormer New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, President Bill Clinton and HIllary Rodham-Clinton attend the 9/11 Memerial Museum Dedication Ceremony.

Carolyn Kaster/APObama and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg tour the destroyed Ladder 3 truck at the September 11 Memorial Museum.

KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERSMichael Bloomberg joined the Obamas and the Clintons to look at the faces of those who died during the 9/11 attacks.

Carolyn Kaster/APPresident Obama, the first lady, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, and Diana Taylor, tour the Memorial Hall.
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Enlarge John Angelillo/POOL/REUTERS
This, Obama said afterward, is a "sacred place of healing and hope."
Wrapping up his brief remarks, Obama recounted the story of Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old World Trade Center worker who became known as "the man in the red bandanna."
A volunteer firefighter, Crowther led other workers to safety before the south tower collapsed, Obama said. But he didn't make it out alive.


CHANG W. LEE/Getty ImagesInvited family and friends of Sept. 11, 2001, victims react while President Obama's speech about Wells Crowther, who scarified himself to save others.

911memorial/Via YoutubeJoe Biden at the dedication of the 9/11 memorial museum in New York City on May 15, 2014
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YouTubeNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, with his wife Mary Pat, speaks at the 9/11 Memeorial Museum Dedication.


YouTubeNew York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the crowd.

 
Timothy A. Clary/Pool/APActor Robert De Niro talks with reporters at the dedication of the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York on Thursday.
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Enlarge CHANG W. LEE/Getty Images
One of Crowther's red bandanas, however, is now enshrined in the new museum. His mother, Alison, said she hoped it would remind visitors "how people helped each other that day, and that they will be inspired to do the same in ways both big and small."
"This is the true legacy of Sept. 11," she said.
And as Alison Crowther spoke, Ling Young, one of the people her son saved stood by her side.
APThe remains of Fire Dept. of New

York Ladder Company 3's truck are displayed at the National Sept. 11 Memorial Museum. "It was very hard for me to come here today, but I wanted to do so, so I could say thank you to his parents," she said.
Mayor de Blasio called the shoes, wallets and other "ordinary objects" in the museum "powerful keepsakes" that tell the story of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001.
Rudy Giuliani, who was New York's mayor when the terrorists struck, said what happened remains impossible to comprehend.


Anthony Behar/Pool/Getty ImagesMembers of the general public watch a screen projection on the World Trade Center Plaza during the dedication ceremony.
"We will never understand how one person escaped and another didn't," he said, before introducing — to great applause — 11 firefighters and Port Authority officers who got trapped in the wreckage and somehow made it out alive.

And there were tears in many eyes when Tony Award-winning actress LaChanze sang "Amazing Grace," her voice echoing off the foundations of the absent buildings that now house most of the museum.

"This museum is a testament to resilience of the human spirit," said former mayor Mike Bloomberg, the memorial foundation's chairman who put $15 million of his own money toward the museum and walked with Bill and Hillary Clinton.


Allan Tannenbaum/APTwo tridents from the World Trade Center are on display inside the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
Outside what is still very much a construction site, there was heavy security and New Yorkers heading to their jobs through mist and appropriately somber overcast skies found their paths blocked at times by police officers.
Nobody complained. Everybody seemed to understand.
The World Trade Center towers were brought down by Islamic fanatics in hijacked planes who rammed the birds into the buildings.
On orders from Osama Bin Laden, the Al Qaeda terrorists also crashed another commandeered plane into the Pentagon. A fourth plane slammed into a Pennsylvania field after the passengers rose up against the hijackers.
Plans for a memorial began taking shape even before Obama dispatched Navy Seals to take out Bin Laden in 2011.
It will open to the public next Wednesday.
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com