Steel beam from World Trade Center to be shown at Shanksville
Tunnel to Towers Foundation
Anyone who was alive then and living in the eastern half of the United States will recall that the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, was pretty much flawless, with clear skies and comfortable late-summer temperatures.
New York City firefighter Stephen Siller had planned on spending the morning hitting the links with his brothers, but after the planes slammed into the World Trade Center, Siller decided he had to travel from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan to help out.
He was so determined, in fact, that when he was confronted by the closed Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, he left his car, strapped on 60 pounds worth of equipment, hoofed it through the tunnel and then another mile to the burning World Trade Center, where he was one of the more than 400 first responders who died that day.
Shortly after, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation was established in Siller’s honor. The nonprofit organization helps veterans and first responders, and it is bringing a steel beam from the destroyed World Trade Center to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville on Thursday, May 7. It will be the fourth stop on a projected 35-city, coast-to-coast tour that will take the beam from coast-to-coast and conclude with it in New York City on Sept. 11, when the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks will be commemorated.
Frank Siller, Stephen Siller’s brother and the chairman and CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, said in a news release that the steel beam, which came from the World Trade Center’s South Tower, “represents the best of who we are as a country. As it travels from coast to coast, we hope this symbol brings communities together to remember the heroes we lost, honor the people still suffering from 9/11-related illnesses, support the families forever changed, and pay tribute to those who continue to protect and serve…”
Representatives from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the Flight 93 National Memorial will be at the event, along with local officials and law enforcement. It will start at 11 a.m. The steel beam will be at the Flight 93 Memorial for a day before moving along to Atlanta, Miami and other cities.
For more information on the steel beam and the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, go online to t2t.org.