State lawmakers broke ground on the Tennessee State Museum location at Bicentennial Mall.
The new $160 million museum, which will be built along Rosa Parks Boulevard, was created to focus on all parts of our state's history.
The goal was to have the museum finished in about two years.
"This museum will tell those essential stories. Stories of heroism and tragedy, of promises kept, and those painfully deferred,” said Jon Meacham.
"I think 100 years from now there will be school kids on this site that will have a new appreciation for what happened not just in the Civil War but today and 50 years from now,” said Gov. Bill Haslam.
The state was still in need of about $40 million for the project.
