On April 25, 2013, Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama joined more than 10,000 other guests on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, to dedicate the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Inside the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, Freedom Hall is a dramatic atrium, 67 feet high, ringed by a massive 360-degree LED screen that shows high-definition multimedia clips blending art, history, and entertainment.
“Responding to September 11” is one of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum's most poignant, permanent exhibits; displaying a global map of terrorist attacks, news footage, the bullhorn the President used to address First Responders at Ground Zero, and a port authority officer’s badge that the President carried every day. A 22-foot, pulverized steel beam from the World Trade Center stands next to a wall carved with the names of victims of the attack.
This bullhorn was used by President George W. Bush on September 14, 2001 when he visited Ground Zero and spoke to the crowd. After someone yelled that he couldn’t hear, the President used the bullhorn to reply, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
George Howard was a New York Port Authority police officer who on 9/11 was enjoying the beginning of his day off. At home, a spectator like the rest of us, he chose to rush to the Twin Towers in hopes of assisting with evacuations and to save lives. Howard ultimately perished doing exactly that. His mother gifted President George W. Bush his service badge and later, speaking before a joint session of Congress and a national audience, President Bush held Howard’s shield aloft, saying, “It is my reminder of lives that ended and a task that does not end.”
The New York Port Authority donated this jagged, twisted beam from the World Trade Center, which weighs 1.85 tons, to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. It arrived in Dallas in 2011.
Engineers who have studied the steel — known as a C-11 panel — say it is the remnant of a triple-beam and crossbeam section from upper floors of the World Trade Center.
"Decision Points Theater" challenges visitors to put themselves in presidential shoes and consider various options to the issues President George W. Bush faced. The time-lapse scenarios include declaring war on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the troop surge in Iraq, and America's financial upheaval.
For high resolution photographs taken during the Administration of President George W. Bush, contact:
Audiovisual Archives
George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum
Phone: 214-346-1656
Fax: 214-346-1558
Email: photos.gwbush@nara.gov