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World Trade Center's "Last Column" Returns To Site
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 25, 2009
Modified Aug 25, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 25, 2009
Modified Aug 25, 2009
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The last column removed from the original World Trade Center building after the September 11, 2001 attacks returned to Ground Zero yesterday. The beam, and its graffiti messages and mementos, was raised up and put in place—it will be part of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. An ironworker told the Daily News, "For this to go up evokes emotion. It shows the rest of the world that even if you knock us down we'll get right back up."
The 60-ton, 36-foot beam's official name is "Column No. 1,0001 B of 2 World Trade Center," but besides the "last column," the NY Times calls it a "makeshift steel shrine," the Post dubs it the "solemn column," and the Daily News writes it was a "symbol of defiance in the face of terror." Retired firefighter Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son Jonathan died on 9/11, "I spent nine months in recovery after losing my son. Seeing the column taken out was a happy-sad day. Now that it is going up, it shows the world our strength... I also lost 80 to 100 good friends. I'm proud of all of them."
Since being removed in May 2002, the beam had been in storage at a JFK Airport hangar. All the mementos, like photographs and mass cards, were taken off and preserved; September 11 Museum president Joseph Daniels, who called the column "sacred and important," said, "Each one was done incredibly carefully," and that the items will be placed back on. After the jump, video of the last column returning to the WTC site:
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9/11 attacks
last column
national september 11 memorial and museum
september 11
world trade center
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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