9/11 site invites contributors to upload stories, images

Whether the 2001 terror attacks were witnessed firsthand or watched on a TV in a living room on another continent, a Web site launched Thursday is storing 9/11 experiences from around the globe.

The National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum created the online project, called "Make History." It's designed to allow the public to directly upload unrestricted images, video and text detailing their personal experiences of the attacks.

It doesn't matter whether contributors were in lower Manhattan the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, or huddled around a radio in Tel Aviv.

"We're charging every community with a responsibility," said national memorial and museum president Joe Daniels. "Whether individuals were here in New York City during the attacks or watching events unfold in Tokyo or stuck in an airport in Australia, people from around the world experienced 9/11 firsthand."

Daniels announced the launch during a presentation of newly released computer-generated renderings of the interior of the planned 9/11 museum, which is more than 120,000 square feet and being built underground.

The renderings featured exhibition space several stories below ground and an overlook, where visitors can stand and see into the museum. The images also show how designers incorporated the original World Trade Center site's slurry wall that keeps the Hudson River from seeping into the space.

The physical remains, such as the wall, were key to the structure's design, said Steven Davis of architecture firm Davis Brody Bond Aedas, which designed the museum. "We have been inspired by the site," he said.

The Make History submissions being collected at 911history.org will become part of a permanent digital archive, and may be used in the museum's primary exhibition, officials said.

Entries are expected from professionals and amateurs.

Each picture will be superimposed on current street-view photos. For example, a picture of people standing on Broadway at Church Street watching the towers collapse would be overlaid on an up-to-date view.

Daniels said the museum will be open by 2012. The project's builder, the Port Authority, said it will be complete in the second quarter of 2013.