Susan Edelman New York Post
The last few pieces of steel from the fallen Twin Towers are being parceled out as mementos — still coveted nearly 15 years after the 9/11 attacks.
A JFK airport hangar, once crammed to the rafters with beams, girders and other remnants of the World Trade Center, is now nearly empty, with only a few steel pieces and crushed police cars left.
Relics from the Twin Towers include a beam given to Woolwich Township, NJ for a garden. Photo NY Post
“It was like hallowed ground,” Sam Maccarone — mayor of Woolwich Township, NJ — said about the hangar, which he visited recently to pick up a 4,000-pound steel beam for a memorial garden.
When Woolwich first applied to the Port Authority for a piece of WTC steel two years ago, he ranked 565 on a waiting list with 125 pieces left. A piece was finally awarded this month.
“Only a handful are left,” Maccarone said. “We’re grateful to get one.”
The PA is winding down a nearly 10-year-old program to give out 9/11 artifacts to municipalities and nonprofits that request them, officials said. Recipients of the tragic relics must agree to display the items publicly.
Besides the few steel pieces, fewer than 100 of the mementos remain, said PA spokeswoman Erica Dumas. These include bits of aluminum and antennae, elevator motors and items salvaged from stores in the underground WTC mall such as toys, jewelry, clothing and optical equipment, Dumas said.
The PA has given remnants to some 1,500 entities nationwide, including public-safety departments, first-aid squads and schools. Additionally, several went to Canada, England, Italy and Germany.
Frank Siller, who started the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation to honor his firefighter brother, got bent beams the group sculpted into a “Never Forget” display for a traveling exhibit. The foundation also got pieces it cut into medallions to thank Carpet One stores for donating to homes the foundation is building for severely injured veterans.
The FDNY also stashed some WTC parts. Ryan Carpenter, a firefighter from Maple Valley, Wash., befriended a New York firefighter on a ski trip and wrote to former Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano requesting a piece of steel for a town memorial. During a visit to the FDNY’s training center on Randall’s Island, a firefighter torched off a chunk.
“I feel honored to bring it back so people here can see and touch a piece of Ground Zero,” Carpenter said.
Before saving some for posterity, the city sold 175,000 tons of World Trade Center steel, including 60,000 tons to China, India and South Korea.
“They were in a hurry to get it out of there,” said retired Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches, whose firefighter son, Jimmy, was killed on 9/11. “They just got rid of it.”
