The morning sky was as blue as it was when I first met Lt. Tom McGoff and his Engine Co. 217 crew more than 12 years ago - on America’s darkest day.

I took a deep breath and entered the National September 11 Memorial & Museum last week not knowing what memories might be triggered by the sights and sounds housed below ground, within the 110,000-square-foot space. More.

Earlier this month the nation watched the dedication of the museum in New York City commemorating the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The somber ceremony reminded us of how much was lost that day, not just to the city of New York but to all of America as we felt the effects of our homeland being so vehemently targeted by terrorists. More.

Many New Yorkers, still trying to make sense of the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center, have had a single question as a museum was being built at ground zero: Too soon?

Now that the 9/11 Memorial Museum, as it's officially called, has opened to the public, they and others may find themselves asking something else: Too much? More.

On the morning before the museum opened to the public, Mary Lou Buss took the ferry from Staten Island to lower Manhattan to visit the place her sister died.

There are prominent videos of the twin towers collapsing, photos of people falling from them, portraits of nearly 3,000 victims and voicemail messages from people in hijacked planes.

When it comes to tragedy, there’s a thin line between solemn commemoration and crass commercialization. Actually, it’s often not very thin, and it’s crossed all the time.

The New York Post recently reported that relatives of 9/11 victims are outraged that the National September 11 Memorial Museum will be home to a gift shop that peddles T-shirts, mugs, and rescue dog vests, as well as books and other educational material relating to the deadly terrorist attack. More.

The 9/11 museum’s appetite for crass commercialism will be satisfied with an 80-seat restaurant inside the memorial’s allegedly solemn grounds.

The Pavilion Cafe, run by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Events, is scheduled to open this summer inside the National September 11 Memorial & Museum — a move overlooked when museum officials took media and VIPs through the grounds last week. More.

Standing inside the National September 11 Memorial Museum amid photos of thousands of victims, Mayor Bill de Blasio typed F-O-N-T-A-N-A on a screen, bringing up images of Dave Fontana, the Brooklyn firefighter he met months before terrorists toppled the Twin Towers.