The 9/11 Tribute Museum is on life support.
Staff say the Lower Manhattan museum will be closing for good, a decision brought on after a sharp drop in visitors since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The museum is located on Greenwich Street, not far from the National September 11 Memorial Museum that sits next to the memorial pools at the site where the former Twin Towers stood.
"My fear is that there is a huge void left for people that are still suffering from post traumatic stress from the illnesses and the cancers," Jennifer Adams said.
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The museum was started by FDNY widows who wanted a place to tell the stories of those they lost in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"There's no one better to tell the story of what happened that day and also, their resilience and their recovery," Adams said.
That includes Paul Conlin, an FDNY captain who responded on 9/11 from Williamsburg. One of his men, firefighter Danny Suhr, was the first to die that day.
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Conlin returns to Lower Manhattan to volunteer at the museum, teaching tourists and New Yorkers about the sights, sounds and horrors he witnessed as a firefighter that day.
"We're making our way in and we're maybe about 100 yards from the entrance when a jumper, person jumped out of the World Trade Center from somewhere, land hit Daniel Suhr," he recalled.
"I like to just try to let them know that you know, 13 people still alive because of because of [Suhr]," he added.
The museum's reliance on international tourism has made it unsustainable during the pandemic. Annual admissions dropped substantially to 26,000 last year, compared to 150,000 in 2019.
Conlin fears that if the 9/11 Tribute Museum doesn't get a financial infusion, stories like Suhr's won't be told.
The museum's leaders say their hope is that elected officials or philanthropists will act soon to preserve important pieces of history.
