The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns
the steel left behind when the World Trade Center collapsed, has already
dispatched thousands of artifacts and is hoping to fill hundreds of last minute
requests before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, when many memorials will be
unveiled.
"These serve as centerpieces of history for towns all
over the country," said Bill Baroni, deputy executive director of the Port
Authority of New York.
"The public will have access to this piece of history
displayed with honor, dignity and respect." The most iconic pieces, such
as the last standing column of the World Trade Center and a FDNY Engine 3 fire
truck, will be on display at the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum when it
opens on Sept. 12 this year.
Most of the 12,000 pieces of steel the program began with
have been dispatched to fire departments, police departments, and cities from
50 states and five countries which requested a piece of World Trade Center
metal.
"People have short memories," said Frank Byrnes,
at the hangar to help escort a piece of steel donated to the St. James Fire
District on New York's Long Island. "If it raises public awareness, even
after 10 years, then it's great." The Port Authority hopes to move most of
the steel before the 10th anniversary but will continue to give out steel until
the supply is exhausted.
Meanwhile, Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International
Airport has become a sort of museum for the men and women who come here to
transport their piece home.
The Wauseon Fire Department from Wauseon, Ohio drove 10
hours overnight to transport a 12-foot, 3,615 pound piece of steel home. While
at the 80,000 square foot hangar, they took a tour of the artifacts.
Among the items catching the attention of Wauseon Fire
Captain Neil Kuszmaul, 34, was a mangled fire truck.
"Being a firefighter and looking at this pumper, it
really brings things into perspective of what we lost that day," he said.
The hangar is full of contorted pieces of steel as well as
burned fire trucks and police cars.
A slipper sits atop a pile of dust-covered clothes. Messages
from well-wishers scribbled and stuck on debris have been eerily preserved.
The application to be given artifacts is long and the
process is complicated, intended to discourage frivolous requests.
For the St. James Fire District in Long Island, New York, it
took two years to be granted a "bow-tie" piece of steel which was
part of the outer steel lobby of the World Trade Center.
"We have done a lot to make this happen," said
Liam Carroll, assistant chief of the St. James Fire District.
The steel has a deeper meaning for Carroll and his brigade.
They lost one of their crew members, Douglas E. Oelschlager, when he was detailed
to a short-staffed Ladder 7 on Sept. 11, 2001. Many wear a laminated photo of
him in their hats.
"It gives us something to reflect on," Carroll
said.
World Trade Center steel has already been used at some
well-known sites. The USS New York, commissioned by the US Navy, was a vessel
built with over seven tons of the steel.
A monument dedicated to nine-year-old Christina-Taylor
Green, killed during the attempted assassination of US Senator Gabrielle
Giffords in Arizona last year, also used World Trade Center steel since she was
born on the day of the attacks.