An interactive museum of journalism and news, the Newseum is situated at
Washington, D.C. This seven-storied, 250,000-square-feet museum has 15 theaters and 14 galleries. Its Berlin Wall Gallery displays the largest collection of parts of the Berlin Wall outside Germany.
There are galleries on other topics too, such as the September 11 attacks, news history, world press freedom, the First Amendment and the history of the radio, TV and Internet. The museum's first location was opened to the public in Rosslyn, Virginia, in April 1997, where visitors were taken in free of cost.
In five years, it had over 2.25 million visitors. It is funded by the Freedom Forum, a non-partisan foundation that is dedicated to "free press, free speech and free spirit for all people." Today, this monument has become one of Washington's most highly visited destinations with its high definition TV studios that host news bulletins including ABC TV's This Week.
The Newseum's original location was in Arlington, Virginia. This was closed in 2002 and the new building opened in 2002. It has a 74-feet glass façade with a 50 ton marble tablet inscribed with the text of the First Amendment. You can also find here bits of radio and TV broadcasts and an interactive newsroom where you can play the role of a TV reporter. The Journalists Memorial, a glass sculpture brought here from the Arlington site, features the names of over 1,900 international journalists killed while on duty.
