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New Orleans, Louisiana: National WWII Museum

RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report

Address:
945 Magazine St., New Orleans, LA
Directions:
Downtown, on the northwest corner of Andrew Higgins and Magazine St. Entrance on Andrew Higgins Drive.
Hours:
Daily 9-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
Phone:
504-528-1944
Admission:
Adults $23 to start.
RA Rates:
Worth a Detour
Save to My Sights

National WWII Museum.

National WWII Museum

Formerly the National D-Day Museum. From one day to nearly 2,000 days -- quite a mission expansion. It's in New Orleans because New Orleans was the manufacturing center for D-Day landing craft by shipbuilder Andrew Higgins.

Roadsideamerica.com Report... [05/24/2015]

Visitor Tips and News About National WWII Museum

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National WWII Museum

Fantastic museum. Dont miss the 4D theater.

[Todd Roberts, 05/20/2023]

Memorial bricks.

National WWII Museum

Sidewalks outside the buildings are paved with bricks engraved with the names of WWII veterans. Found my grandfather's name when I was there.

[Chad, 02/11/2021]

Commemorative pavers are engraved with names and messages from veterans' families as part of the museum's "Honor Your Hero" fund-raising program.

Carrier bridge.

National WWII Museum

"Road to Tokyo" is the latest in a continuing series of add-ons to the National WWII Museum. Ten different "immersion galleries" are light on the artifacts and heavy on the immersion, which is typical of the rest of the museum as well. There's video everywhere, with ample sound effects, moody lighting, and stirring/sad music to put you in the correct frame of mind. Stand on the bridge of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise! Walk through the jungles of Guadalcanal! General MacArthur, Iwo Jima, kamikaze attacks -- all the Pacific War must-haves are here. The "Endgame Against Japan" display does showcase a couple of items recovered from the rubble of the Nagasaki A-bomb blast, but there's generally more virtual reality staging than actual museum objects.

[RoadsideAmerica.com Team, 12/12/2015]

USS Tang Submarine Experience.

World War II Meets the Titanic

The National World War II Museum just opened a whole additional building, the "Freedom Pavilion," displaying full-size airplanes and tanks. Its highlight, however, is the high-tech Final Mission: USS Tang Submarine Experience. It's essentially a dignified version of a 4-D ride. Thirty people at a time are sealed inside a recreated World War II submarine. As with the Titanic: World's Largest Museum Attraction, each visitor is given the name of a crewman, and at the end of the 15-minute ride they find out if they lived (Most don't; the Tang was a real World War II sub that sank in 1944).

Tourists sit at various battle stations within the dimly-lit sub, and are subjected to, among other things, the rumble of diesel engines and the smell of burning electrical wires.

[Roadsideamerica.com Team, 01/24/2013]

Nearby Offbeat Places

Lighthouse BuildingLighthouse Building, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.
Scrap House: Katrina MemorialScrap House: Katrina Memorial, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.
End of the Jefferson HighwayEnd of the Jefferson Highway, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.
In the region:
Museum of the American Cocktail, New Orleans, LA - < 1 mi.

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