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Shallow Fog World Trade Center steel to be dedicated Sunday
Monument will honor the sacrifices of those lost on 9/11 and their families
A steel beam recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center will be dedicated at a ceremony on Sunday to honor the first responders and victims of the terrorist attacks of Sept.11, 2001. Its inscription reads, “This monument stands as a symbol of the strength and resolve of all of those who answered the call on September 11, 2001 and each day since, at home and abroad.”
The ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. and is being held by the City of Long Beach and VFW Post 1384, and representatives from the police, fire department, and military will also join the memorial. The monument’s plaque will be unveiled and family members of those lost on Sept. 11 and in the wars that followed will place a wreath at its base.
“It was very well-designed and it’s a real striking monument,” said Keith Grant, a U.S. Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq and proposed the new memorial to the city last year. “Everything I’ve heard from folks is that they’re very proud to see it there and it has a lot of meaning to people, people who were in lower Manhattan that day and people who were affected.”
The monument was installed at VFW plaza on West Park Avenue and Grand Boulevard last December. The beam was one of three donated to Long Beach in 2002, but had been kept in storage ever since.
“This is the official dedication of the monument,” Grant added. “Last December, we were able to do an informal ceremony when the steel was put in place at its current location, but since that time the city has really spruced up the grounds and put in planters and added a survivors’ tree.”
The “Survivor Tree” — a callery pear tree that withstood the terror attack at the World Trade Center and the collapse of the Twin Towers — was severely damaged but alive. After an extended period of care and rehabilitation, the tree was returned to the National 9/11 Memorial in 2010. Cuttings were taken from that original tree and raised by the John Browne School in Flushing, Queens, one of which was donated to the City of Long Beach.
