The 911 Memorial website was overrun yesterday when it opened its online box-office for ticket reservations to visit the Memorial. 

The site's traffic spiked, with up to 1,000 users simultaneously logged on—as opposed to the site's average of 40 simultaneous users—says Joseph Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Reservations opened at 9am and 5,000 tickets had been issued within the first hour. 

“There was a small hiccup at the beginning of the day,” says Michael Frazier at the 911 Memorial press office, “But the site held up and never went down. Everyone who wanted to order a ticket yesterday got one.”

10 hours after the site opened there were more than 34,500 passes reserved internationally, says Frazier. Orders came in from Spain Australia, Brazil, Italy and Canada. 

Daniels told the New York Post that the Memorial Site itself will be able to accept around 6,000 visitors a day. The Memorial opens to the public on September 12 and the plaza area will be free to enter, but the memorial requires a ticket.