NATIONAL
SEPTEMBER 11
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Just over six years ago, September 11, 2001,
four airplanes were hijacked and crashed, resulting in the death of 2,980 people
at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and an abandoned strip mine
near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
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 Everyone present was invited to sign one of the steel I-Beams which will be used in construction of the memorial at Ground Zero. Next, visitors were allowed to tour the accompanying museum exhibit, including a 7-minute movie and artifacts from September 11. |
 Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl opened with comments before introducing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who chairs the museum project. The 8-acre Manhattan memorial "Reflecting Absence" will include the names of all the victims from September 11th. The winning memorial design features two 30-foot waterfall-filled pools that mirror the footprints of the twin towers. The two pools will be surrounded by over 300 Oak trees to separate the Memorial Plaza from downtown New York City. |
 Guests of honor included (left to right) Joe Daniels, president and CEO of the memorial, museum board member Paula Grant Berry, whose husband David perished in the South Tower, and Lt. Mickey Kross, a retired New York City firefighter who was inside the North Tower when it collapsed. |
 "I was looking at the sky and got a chill because this is exactly what it looked like on September 11th" Mickey Kross speaking to the Pittsburgh crowd
On the morning of September 11th, Lt.
Kross was dispatched with his fire company, Engine 16, to the 23rd floor of the North
Tower to evacuate a stairwell. He became a victim himself, when
the North Tower collapsed. |
 Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato listens intently as Lt. Kross tells his story. "I got down to the fourth floor and heard this tremendous roar... I thought, This is not happening! In a few moments, I realized it was happening... I wasn't sure if I was still alive."
Lt. Kross was one of
only 20 people who survived inside the collapsing towers at Ground
Zero. |
 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (right) joins Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in signing the top of a steel beam to be used in construction of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. The steel beams and tour continued on to Charleston, West Virginia for a Tuesday event, with more stops scattered throughout the United States. |
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LINKS |
| National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center |
| Flight 93 National Memorial |
| Flight 93 Temporary Memorial in Shanksville |
| USS New York - LPD 21 New! |
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