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- A Makeshift Steel Shrine Returns to Ground Zero
By SIMON AKAM
Published: August 24, 2009
Column No. 1,001 B was never meant to be an object of veneration.
But after the Sept. 11 attacks, the 36-foot steel-beam fragment — the last to be removed from ground zero — became a World Trade Center shrine, covered in commemorative graffiti and duct-taped with posters and photographs.
Seven years after it left ground zero, the so-called last column returned to the site, where it will be a permanent exhibit in the forthcoming National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
“This major artifact, with its many markings and inscriptions, commemorates the sacrifice of so many,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the memorial’s president. “It will stand proud in the museum as a symbol of the spirit of unity and dedication that brought people together at ground zero.”
In bright sunlight, a giant crane lifted the column — which weighs about 60 tons — from the flatbed truck that carried it from storage in Hangar 17 at Kennedy Airport.
Steven San Filippo, a Fire Department battalion chief who was a captain on Sept. 11, remembered the significance that the unofficial memorial had for recovery workers.
“It just seemed that everybody wanted to be near it,” Chief San Filippo, 54, said. “They wanted to put their names on it.”
Construction workers at the site — tough men with hard hats and tattoos on their biceps — said the return of the column was equally poignant for them.
“It reminds us of why we’re here,” said Brian Dupere, an ironworker. “A lot of guys get lost in the fact that it’s a job, but it’s more than a job.”
Later, as the crane lifted the column above the wooden walkways and concrete-pumping machines, many of the workers paused to watch.
White plastic shrink wrap covered most of the suspended steel, but the flanges at the column’s base were exposed — and among the spray-painted graffiti, the words “God Bless” were legible.
It was spray paint that first distinguished the fragment of No. 1,001 B. After the towers’ collapse — when their footprint was still a maelstrom of twisted metal and debris — firefighters sprayed the column to indicate that their missing comrades might be nearby.
Later, as the rescue effort gave way to recovery, less-utilitarian graffiti appeared. Someone sprayed “N.Y.P.D 23” in blue in memory of the 17 police officers, 4 sergeants and 2 detectives who died in the attack.
Other painted numbers represented those who died in the attacks — 343 for the Fire Department and 37 for the Port Authority police. And the collection of ephemera blossomed, too, with notes and Mass cards taped to the column’s steel flanks.
Despite that, Sgt. James Buscemi, of the Police Department’s Emergency Service Unit, said on Monday that the column’s return was a positive event.
“It shows that we’re moving forward,” he said, standing in a gleaming dress uniform before the lifting began. “This is truly sacred ground here.”
A 60-ton, 36-foot beam fragment, which was part of 2 World Trade Center, was lifted by crane back to ground zero on Monday.
