Visitors to the 9-11 memorial museum could relive the 2001 terrorist attacks in an “immersive” area that surrounds them with pictures of the falling towers, the sounds of police sirens and the last words of some of those who died at the World Trade Center.

The first piece of steel to be hit by a hijacked jet – as well as lottery tickets and keys pulled from ground zero, and a contemplative area where visitors can leave personal messages – are among other proposed exhibits for the museum.

The plans, presented in public workshops over the past month, offer the first glimpse of an institution that is likely to become one of the country’s most visited museums. The ideas are also likely to prompt sensitive questions of how to tell the story of 9-11.

Recently, a proposed freedom museum was removed from the space that had been reserved for it at ground zero, after the World Trade Center families and others bitterly complained that the museum could foster inappropriate debate about 9-11 at the site of the attacks.