Photos: Ground Zero Cross Stops at Delbarton

Sculptor Jon Krawczyk stopped at Delbarton School Wednesday with his 14-foot steel cross destined for St. Peter's Church near Ground Zero. in lower Manhattan. The artist, a 1988 Delbarton graduate,  has been on a journey from Malibu, CA () to New York City.

People were encouraged to insert messages into the hollow cross to commemorate loved ones who lost their lives in the terrorist attack on Sepetmber 11, 2001. The cross will be permanently sealed with the messages inside when the installtion is complete,

St. Peter's, the oldest Catholic church in New York, was damaged in the attack of 9/11. The new cross replaces crucifix-shaped, steel I-beam girders found amid the Twin Towers debris that have been on display at St. Peter's for the past five years. 

Krawczyk's steel cross measures 14 feet by 10 feet, weighs 500 pounds and includes fragments of metal recovered from the Ground Zero disaster site.

The coast-to-coast drive took the artist and his Delbarton classmate, writer Kevin (Smith) Kato, class of 1988, to, among other places, Santa Fe, Indianapolis, Memphis and Nashville, as well as the Shanksville, PA, crash site of United Flight 93, and a site near the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.. People have been invited to follow their trek via a daily blog. 

Krawczyk, creator of the bronze crucifix on display in the lobby of the Delbarton Fine Arts Center, is also the artist behind the massive steel hockey player that greets fans at The Prudential Center in Newark.