Google Earth tool will provide online WTC access

NEW YORK (AP) — Online visitors to the World Trade Center site will be able to explore the site with a click of the mouse thanks to a partnership between the National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum and Google Earth.

Museum officials said Wednesday that the 3-D model will help the public visualize the memorial and its lower Manhattan setting. Visitors will be able to zoom in and look at each tree and cobblestone or zoom out and look at the entire project.

In-person visitors to the museum will see recreations of the vigils and makeshift memorials that sprang up around the city after the attacks. They also will see portraits of the victims.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2012.