By Brett Weisband
Two steel beams lifted from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, bent and twisted, sit at the heart of a memorial to the attack's victims to be unveiled at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
The beams, both from World Trade Center Tower One, were presented to Dan Hennigan, a retired U.S. Army officer, by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Hennigan, a Brooklyn native and Lexington resident, was given the beams for his efforts in honoring the memories of those killed on September 11. They will be crossed between two 25-foot granite pillars, which represent the World Trade Center's two towers.
Gov. Nikki Haley will deliver the keynote address at Sunday's ceremony. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin will also attend.
With a trio of flags and the Adluh Flour building as its backdrop, the 9/11 First Responders' Memorial will honor the more than 3,000 people who died in the attacks. The 47 South Carolina police officers, firefighters, EMS and military personnel who have died in the line of duty in the decade since will also be honored. Names will be added to the monument annually to honor those killed in the previous year.
Ron Clamp, the designer and stone carver, said the memorial is loaded with symbolism. The "343" on the granite tower represents World Trade Center Tower One in honor of the firefighters who died in the attacks. There are also homages to the sites of the two other terrorist attacks of September 11 at the Pentagon and in central Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed into a field.
The $750,000 project is privately funded, and organizers have raised over 90 percent of that goal, according to a fundraising chart at the site. There will be a fundraiser Saturday at Liberty Tap Room in the Vista from noon to 4 p.m.
Read our entire coverage
