Small museum known for ground zero tours could shut in weeks

By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — An institution that has offered guided tours of the World Trade Center site since well before the national Sept. 11 museum was built is in financial trouble. Leaders say the 9/11 Tribute Museum is poised to close within weeks, unless it can find someone to provide a last-minute rescue from millions of dollars in debt. While financial pressures have been building for some time, leaders say the museum has been pushed to the brink by the coronavirus pandemic, which hammered tourism on the heels of a costly 2017 move. The museum opened as a visitor center in 2006. It became best known for walking tours of the trade center site, led by relatives of the dead, survivors, rescue and recovery workers and people who lived nearby on 9/11.