The WTC's steel 'tridents' are returning to ground zero (Updated)
The towering twin steel beams were once part of the facade of the World Trade Center's south tower, sheathed in smooth aluminum. Salvaged from ground zero after the 9/11 attacks, the tridents are being resurrected and will greet visitors as they enter the pavilion of the 9/11 Memorial Museum. The remnant steel became known as tridents because the beams are crowned with three prongs.
The tridents will be moved to the World Trade Center site from storage at a Queens airport hangar, where tons and tons of remnant steel has remained since the Sept. 11 destruction at WTC. The tridents are planned to be returned to the WTC site this fall and will be installed while work on the pavilion continues. Each is about 70-feet tall and weighs 52 tons.
Read more about the tridents in the New York Daily News.
"I feel this way about it. World trade means world peace and consequently the World Trade Center buildings in New York ... had a bigger purpose than just to provide room for tenants. The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace," Minoru Yamasaki, chief architect of the World Trade Center, once stated.
Pictures:Welders work on the so-called tridents that will stand in the 9/11 Memorial Museum's entry pavilion. (Photos by Lynn Rasic)
By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial
A sloping ramp will lead visitors into bedrock and into the space of the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Yesterday, a small group of news reporters and 9/11 victims' families members were led on a tour of the space by Memorial Museum Director Alice Greenwald and mu
Staff photographer Amy Dreher snaps a lot of pictures at the World Trade Center site, documenting the construction progress of the 9/11 Memorial. Amy also trains her lens on the smaller pieces that may be overlooked with a project of this magnitude.