Welcoming a Piece of History to Barnegat

At just over 9 feet long and weighing in at over 500 pounds, the rusting piece of steel brought to Barnegat today, Wednesday, Aug. 10, is no small artifact.

But the metal beam’s legacy dwarfs its size and weight. Salvaged from the wreckage of the North Tower of the World Trade Center following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York, it’s destined to become a permanent memorial at Barnegat High School, fulfilling a longtime wish of several local 9/11 first responders.

The steel arrived at the school shortly before 1 p.m. on a trailer pulled by the “9/11 Ground Zero Truck,” a rolling memorial to the attacks, and escorted by police, ambulances, fire trucks and more than a dozen motorcycle-riding American Legion members. A crowd of about 75 residents and officials were on hand to welcome Barnegat’s piece of history with a short ceremony.

Charles Giles, a resident and first responder who spearheaded the effort to bring the steel to town, said the day had been emotional, from the trip to John F. Kennedy International Airport to pick up the beam from the Port Authority hangar where it was stored along with other 9/11 artifacts to the trip down the Garden State Parkway.

“I cried in the hangar, and I cried when it was out,” he said.

In a town with so many residents who survived the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade towers – 15 9/11 first responders call Barnegat home – it’s important to have a memorial to remind people of the tragedy and heroism of that day ten years ago, said Giles, and putting it in a place where young people can see it makes sense.

Barnegat superintendent Karen Wood agreed.

“There is an entire generation that did not see the images from that day,” she said in an address to the crowd outside the high school. “We have a responsibility to educate the generations to come so they never forget everything that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.”

The beam will be erected near the school's football stadium in the coming weeks, Wood said, and will be formally dedicated in a ceremony on Sept. 16.

Carmen Hill, also a Barnegat resident, said she came to the school for the ceremony so she could pay her respects to those who died nearly ten years ago.

“It always fills me up when I think about it,” she said of the attacks. Having a tangible artifact from the attacks will be an important reminder for Barnegat, Hill said.

“It seems like New York is so far away, but it’s not,” she said. “New York, the states, everyone is family. This brings us together.”

Pastor Glenn Swank, who offered an invocation during the ceremony, wanted those who gathered at the school to take home that same message of community.

Americans were left feeling vulnerable after the tragedy of 9/11, said Swank, but in the days that followed the attacks, newspapers were full of stories of heroism and bravery, of strangers extending helping hands.

“We as Americans were inspired to talk to each other, to support each other,” he said.

Rob Schrader, a U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer who spent eight weeks working the pile at Ground Zero after the attacks, watched the procession drive up from the shade of a tree near the school’s entrance. He said arrival of tower steel in his own town was bittersweet.

“It’s an honor,” he said. But he knows the attacks and their aftermath are something no one alive then will forget.

“It sticks in your mind and never goes away,” he said.

Remembering 9/11, ten years on. In the coming weeks, Barnegat Patch will be looking back at 9/11 through the lens of local residents' experiences on the day of the attacks and the years the followed. If you'd like to share your story, write or call the editor: graelyn.brashear@patch.com or 732-331-7686.