Former President & CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum Joe Daniels Talks 25 Years of 9/11

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

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Tom Keene (0:07)

September 11th here in New York City, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and all across the country and the world, it is a significant day here for us. And we're gonna have guests throughout the day helping us kind of put that day into perspective. One of them is Joe Daniels. He's a former president and CEO of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum. And of course, Mike Bloomberg served as the chairman of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum.

Joe, thanks so much for joining us here. Talk to us about the idea behind the museum. When did it kind of start? How did it kind of come to fruition? Because again, you guys have created an extraordinary museum and memorial to one of the most infamous days in this country's history.

Joe Daniels (0:52)

Well, thanks for having me and our whole approach with that museum is to take a first-person approach, to use the voicemails, the actual sounds and words that all of those victims were speaking on that day.

By doing that, it delivers a real emotional punch, it makes people remember, it makes people remember how this country, this city came together with just limitless compassion in the aftermath. When Mike Bloomberg became chairman in 2006, everybody on the project just had this ratcheting up in intensity to get this memorial done by the 10th anniversary and then of course the museum a couple years later.

Paul Sweeney (1:34)

Joe, I gotta say, it's left a mark on generations of Americans. And I say generations because, you know, I remember after 9-11 and so many people from that day have a story. Like you remember where you were on that day. But because so much time has passed, there's a lot of folks, like my kids, for example, some of my coworkers who don't remember that day and don't have that. Is that what makes this museum so special? I mean, I brought my kids there.

Joe Daniels (2:02)

Absolutely. This museum is such a vital resource with every year that goes by.

100 million Americans now, one in three, were not born before 9-11. But when you go to that museum where you stand at the memorial with all of those names etched in bronze forever while you look at the memorial pools, it does transcend you. It does give you a feeling of what this country went through, even if you weren't born then. So from the parents' perspective, it is so important that, like you did, to bring your kids down, to bring visitors when they come into town, because people don't forget it once they go through it.

Tom Keene (2:42)

And what I love when I go down there to lower Manhattan is that there are people there all the time, every single day, and they're coming from around the world.

What's great about lower Manhattan, and what you guys have done with the museum, is you can just go to the reflecting pools, take it in a little bit, just dip your toe a little bit, just kind of get a sense of kind of what's going on down there, and then, if you want, you can go into the museum and really immerse yourself and really learn the full meaning of what happened down there. Joe, who's a typical person that goes to the museum down there, the September 11 Memorial & Museum?

Joe Daniels (3:18)

You know, it's people from who visit New York City now.

And just about what you said about the vitality and life that's returned there, when Mike Wickmike was our chairman, that side of it, to restore life to lower Manhattan, was just a key part of the vision. And if you think about the economic impact, there's been over 60 million visitors just to the museum. All of those businesses that have returned, American Express, building a new tower, all of these, you know, just life down there. But for the memorial and the museum, it's visitors that are coming to New York that know about 9-11, and they want to experience the sacredness, the solemnity, and they leave feeling touched, honestly.

Paul Sweeney (4:06)

You know, that area, lower Manhattan, I mean, you've known it before, you've known it now. Can you talk a little bit about the revitalization of that area?

Joe Daniels (4:15)

Yeah, I mean, I was outside the North Tower on 9-11, and experienced a lot of what happened. I got there right after the first plane hit, and then started running after the United 175 hit the South Tower. We all remember the twisted metal, the debris, the smell, the smoke that existed after the attacks. In lower Manhattan, there was a real fear, not only of residents not coming back, businesses not coming back, and to see all of these years later, 25 years later, that there is life down here, economic activity, and also this solemn memorial and important museum working together.