World Trade Center 'Artifact Steel' to be Featured in Local 9/11 Memorial

With the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center just days away, members of the Glenville Volunteer Company are busy preparing for the dedication and unveiling of a much-anticipated 9/11 memorial in western Greenwich.

Fashioned from an 8-1/2-foot long, 3-inch thick piece of “artifact steel” salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, the memorial will be erected at the Glenville firehouse, though, according to Glenville Fire Company president, Sandy Kornberg, “The memorial does not belong to this fire company. It belongs to everyone in the town of Greenwich.”

The memorial’s steel centerpiece was mostly likely an “I” beam used between inner floors in one of the World Trade Center buildings. Bolted to the top and bottom of the “I” are rectangles of approximately 18” x 20.” In between, the 3-inch thick beam features a series of steel pegs that were apparently used to bolt the piece to concrete.

The steel beam is one of the 1,100 pieces salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center buildings and are considered historical. The mangled steel was catalogued and stored by the New York and New Jersey Port Authority until 2009, when organizations like museums, schools and firehouses were invited to submit proposals for memorials.

After a lengthy screening process, the Glenville proposal was selected from submissions across the country and as far as China. According to Kornberg the timing of the memorial project was set to dovetail nicely with the completion of Station No. 4’s major renovation and expansion, and the plan was to mount the historic bell atop a small salvaged piece of steel.

Ultimately, the fire department moved away from the bell idea when Glenville was offered the enormous I-beam. Apparently its original intended recipient, a museum, had discovered it wouldn’t fit.

When it was time to take possession of the beam, Kornberg, along with Joey Romaniello of Stamford’s East Coast Towing, set out for JFK’s hangar 17 in a flatbed truck. Kornberg said that when they arrived, the vast array of mangled, rusted hunks of steel, preserved as they fell, was overwhelming. After a forklift loaded the massive, 1,630 lb. beam onto the flatbed, Kornberg draped it with the American flag he had had the foresight to pack, and, as he and Romaniello towed the beam north on I-95, drivers honked and waved along the way. 

Sharing his own memories of 9/11, Kornberg, said “Three of us from Glenville deployed in Ladder 4 to Valhalla where we were staged in a big open field along with over a hundred other firefighting apparatus. We had the uncertainty of not knowing what was happening at Ground Zero and we didn’t know if we’d get called. Jet fighters from the Air Force or Navy were coming to the area all day. The resources were there if needed and the three of us from Glenville were there until some time around 9:00 p.m.”

The Glenville fire station is manned 24 hours by two career fire fighters. There are also over 50 members, of which 15 are “tagged” or certified volunteers who fight fires. “All of us are volunteers with another life,” said Kornberg. “We have lawyers, students, and even an FBI agent. We have people who work for the electric company, water company, power company and gas companies.” Volunteers can participate on the uniform, radio, entertainment, holiday or fundraising committees. Anyone who wants to visit the Glenville fire station or become a volunteer should contact Sandy Kornberg at (203) 532-9606. 

The unveiling of the memorial and brief dedication ceremony are open to the public and are scheduled take place on Friday, September 9th, at 6pm at the Glenville fire station, 266 Glenville Road.