It stands as a physical reminder of a day that split our lives into before and after; a piece of the World Trade Center on Erie’s bayfront, the centerpiece of Erie’s 9/11 memorial.
“When I heard that the steel was being kept and was being distributed to communities, it was like, we want to get something we can touch, and that was the beginning of that path,” said Mark Alexandrowicz, who brought the World Trade Center steel beam to Erie.
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Alexandrowicz still vividly remembers the trip to pick up the 18-foot piece of steel from a hangar in New York.
Inside the hangar, there was twisted steel, destroyed fire trucks and police cars, and maybe the biggest question of all: “There was a door from a firetruck that probably had all the original dust and debris and residue on it, and somebody took their finger and wrote ‘why?’ on the door,” Alexandrowicz said.
On this 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it has now been 12 years since the memorial was dedicated. For many, it’s now part of a bigger mission to “Never Forget.”
“Because we’re all getting older and younger generations don’t know anything about 9/11. They were born after the fact,” said Elaine Duncan.
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“The more monuments that we have, the more newer generations, younger generations will know what happened to the country,” said Tedd Duncan.
Right now, about 30% of the country was born after 9/11, and as that number gets larger, this beam and the small plaza built around it will remain to tell them the story, the ultimate first-hand account.
“Some communities just erected the column. They just put it there. They put up a sign. This was done as a history lesson,” Alexandrowicz said.
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