Exclusive Pictures of the New 9/11 Museum

A shattered portion of the enormous broadcasting antenna that topped the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Some of the massive artifacts salvaged from the towers almost have the appearance of abstract sculpture, like this 10,000 pound elevator motor.

The exterior skin of the museum’s irregularly shaped entry pavilion is banded with alternating stripes of polished and matte finish stainless steel, which meet an angular wall of clear glass.

Two 80 ft. (24 m) “tridents” from the World Trade Center’s facade rise through the glass-enclosed atrium of the museum’s entry pavilion, with its crisscrossing steel trusswork. The stairway leads down to the mostly belowground museum.

The remains of “Ladder 3." On the morning of the attacks, it carried 11 firefighters to the scene. All of them died in the collapse of the towers.

A photo by modern pictorialist photographer Joseph Ruzicka, an early member of the Camera Club of New York

An interior gallery displays the “Cross at Ground Zero." A steel T-beam salvaged from the wreckage of the towers, it became a rallying point for rescue and recovery workers at the site.

A twisted fragment of steel from the north tower testifies to the immense heat and pressure of the Trade Center collapse.

This pay phone, found in the wreckage at Ground Zero, was once installed on the 107th floor observation deck of the south tower, more than a quarter mile above the street.

A river line valve sits in the museum’s Foundation Hall before a portion of the Trade Center’s slurry wall, a barrier that held firm after the towers collapsed, preventing the Hudson River from inundating lower Manhattan.

The “Survivors’ Stairs” were an escape route used by many people on 9/11. At the museum they have been installed alongside the final stretch of the ramp by which visitors make their way down to the exhibition galleries.