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9/11 Memorial & Museum to host touching commemoration on 20th anniversary of attacks

FILE - In this June 7, 2018, file photo, the September 11 Memorial and Museum are seen from an upper floor of 3 World Trade Center in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) (Mark Lennihan, Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Get your tissues handy, because the 9/11 Memorial & Museum is getting ready to host a touching tribute for family members of those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Memorial & Museum on the morning of Sept. 11 will host a commemoration where names of victims will be read by their family members in person.

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Starting at 8:30 a.m. and lasting until 1 p.m., the commemoration will feature six moments of silence and a reading of names from both the 9/11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The ceremony is open only to family members of 9/11 victims, who had invites sent to them either via email or mail by the Memorial & Museum. It’s unclear whether a television presence will be allowed.

In general though, the site figures to be a busy place in the days leading up to Sept. 11, and on the day itself in the afternoon, once the private family commemoration is over.

The museum will be closed to the public on Sept. 11, but the memorial will be open from 3 p.m. to midnight.

The memorial opened on the 10th anniversary of the attacks, Sept. 11, 2011, and is located on the western side of the former World Trade Center complex.

Beneath the Memorial Plaza is the museum, which opened in 2014 and tells the story of the attacks through artifacts and media narratives.

The memorial, which is open daily from 10 a.m to 5 p.m., and the museum, open Thursday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., combine to get about 9,000 visitors daily, according to its website.

On a side note to the opportunities to visit the site in person, the Memorial & Museum on Sept. 10 and 11 will have an on-demand webinar program for teachers, students and community organizations to commemorate the 20th anniversary.

The program will feature four speakers, a retired New York firefighter, a man who was a student in the elementary school in Florida when President George W. Bush was told of the attacks, a retired police officer and two women whose fathers were killed in the attacks.

The link to the webinar will be available by clicking or tapping here. There will be a live chat from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day on the 10th and 11th.