Visitors to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum must now pay a $2 reservation fee, which allows visitors to reserve passes either online or by phone.
The fee went into effect last month. There is still no charge for admission to the memorial, which is located on the World Trade Center site. Day-passes are also offered to visitors free of charge on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Some family members of the victims of the 9/11 attacks feel the fee violates the memorial's mission.
"They're making money off the people that died," Jim Riches, a retired FDNY deputy chief, who lost his son, who was a firefighter, in the 9/11 attacks, told the New York Post.
"Like other similar institutions, in order to help support the operational needs of the 9/11 Memorial, we have implemented a service fee, solely for advanced reservations," said Memorial President Joe Daniels in a statement issued Sunday.
The reservation system is temporary until certain construction projects are finished, according to the memorial's web site. Tax-funded grants have paid for approximately $300 million worth of construction and more than $400 million came from private donations.
The memorial opened in 2011, attracting about seven million visitors to its site, which has reflecting pools with waterfalls that outline the footprints of the fallen towers.
The foundation in charge of operating the memorial estimates that once the project reaches completion, the memorial and museum will cost $60 million a year to operate. The museum is still under construction after an interruption resulting from a funding dispute between the foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the 16-acre World Trade Center site. The failure to open the museum on time has thrown off the foundation's financial planning, according to officials.
Visitors to the exhibit will see portraits of the almost 3,000 victims who were killed on 9/11, as well as, hear oral histories and view artifacts such as a staircase that World Trade Center workers used to escape the building.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
