Patriot Day Ceremony to incorporate Trade Center memorial
At the first of March, construction crews were hard at work to complete the Mountain Brook Municipal Complex by its mid-April deadline.
But at one moment that day, they stopped. A beam unlike any other in the structure had arrived, and workers started coming down from ladders and out of the building to see it.
As craftsmen prepared to erect it at the corner of Hoyt Lane and Oak Street, everyone started touching the beam and telling stories about where they had been on Sept. 11, 2001. It was the day the World Trade Center towers holding this beam had fallen so fatefully, the day America said goodbye to 2,753 of its own, altering its trajectory forever.
“Three-hundred, forty-four fire service persons lost lives that day, and the [fire] department has always felt connected to them,” Fire Chief Robert Ezekiel said. “But [seeing how everyone came out that day] pointed out to me how important it is to everyone. It’s one of those moments that everyone remembers.”
Ezekiel hopes the 1,305-pound beam will serve as a powerful reminder during a special ceremony in front of it on Patriot Day of this year.
“It’s one of the larger pieces I have seen from the collection,” Ezekiel said, recalling the reactions of passersby as they realized its significance. “We are so proud of it.”
Following the New York City tragedy 12 years ago, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had collected pieces of the towers and stored them in an airplane hangar.
Eventually, the Mountain Brook Fire Department found that the Port Authority was giving away pieces to be used as memorials, and City Manager Sam Gaston wrote a letter to request one.
Once the beam arrived, the City involved the Village Design Review Committee to decide how to display it, and the consensus was to mount it vertically to represent the shape of the tower where it came from.
Artist Shea Scully chose to use a different type of metal to mount it. Scully did so to distinguish the original beam from the mounting, and Brasfield & Gorrie General Contractors performed the labor to make it happen.
Following the ceremony this year, Ezekiel said he intends to send photos to the Port Authority to show how the beam has fulfilled their purpose in shipping it to Alabama.
Every couple of months the Fire Department paints the beam with beeswax to keep it from rusting while maintaining its original look.
The department intends to lay a wreath around the memorial every Sept. 11 going forward, Ezekiel said.
“It’s almost like having a piece of USS Arizona after Pearl Harbor,” Ezekiel said. “It had similar impact on our country, and people will pause and reflect on what they were doing that day. And that’s what it’s all about. We don’t want to forget.”