COLUMBUS, Ohio — Step lightly between two facing mirrors at a first-of-its-kind museum honoring and celebrating the experiences of military veterans, and it takes your breath away. Behind and in front of you, as far as the eye can see, are folded flags.

You are standing midstream among the tidy triangles of past and future, the men and women who gave and will give their lives in service to the United States. This remembrance gallery is basked in sprays of color arranged on the windows, like stained glass, in the patterns of military service medals.

Developers of the $82 million, 53,000-square-foot National Veterans Museum and Memorial, which opened Saturday on Columbus’ downtown riverfront, seek to inspire and educate visitors.

It shows military families cleaved and reunited, it visually visits young recruits aboard military vessels, it tells love stories, it mourns wrenching losses. All this is done through state-of-the-art interactive graphics, shifting photo images, documentary-style videos and oral history interviews.

General Colin Powell, the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serves as honorary chairman of the museum’s board of advisers. Amy Taylor, chief operating officer of the Columbus Downtown Development Corp., which spearheaded the effort, said it’s neither a war memorial nor a traditional military museum. The goal is to show veterans’ individual lives before, during and after they serve.

“It’s a narrative journey and, while artifacts are here and we have them, they’re only here to advance the story,” Taylor said. “So it’s not like, oh, I’m here to see the original ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ flag. No, you’re here to learn a story and maybe an ice cream carton helps tells that story, or a drum helps tell that story.”

The project, begun in December 2015, was the vision of Ohio native John Glenn, the late military hero, astronaut and U.S. senator who died in 2016. Taylor calls the museum a “labor of love” to Glenn and the veterans committee he convened to plan a site to memorialize “ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things.”

The structure’s sweeping concrete arches have drawn attention by designers, as well. Architectural Digest dubbed the museum one of the most anticipated buildings of 2018. Taylor said its lack of internal supporting columns is symbolic. “The strength comes from within,” she said.

Congress also has taken note. In June, the facility was designated the nation’s veterans memorial and museum.

Glenn is among dozens of veterans famous and obscure whose stories are shared throughout the building. Another is Tom Moe, a former state veterans services director under Ohio Gov. John Kasich who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Korea.

The museum also remembers those who don’t come home. A quiet, 2.5-acre grove whose waterfall is visible from the museum foyer is meant for reflection and remembrance.