Monument to 9/11 workers
BARRE, Vt. — A tribute to thousands of rescue and recovery workers who labored in the ruins of the World Trade Center is taking shape in Vermont, where workers are chipping at and chiseling slabs of granite that will be installed this spring at the national Sept. 11 memorial in New York.
The area, with a path flanked by stone monoliths, will also honor those sickened or who died from exposure to toxins after the towers fell.
One of the six monoliths weighing between 15 and 17.5 tons was nearly complete last week at the Rock of Ages granite company in Barre.
The AP was given access to the work. Workers fine-tuned the first triangular 8x12-foot monolith composed of layers of granite that resemble a rock bed more than 3 feet tall at one end. One worker used a torch to finish the surface, while officials from New York’s Sept. 11 memorial watched.
A stonecutter swung a sledgehammer onto the head of a maul held by another stonecutter to chop pieces off another slab of granite for the next monolith.
“It’s a great honor for me to do this for them,” stonecutter and firefighter Andy Hebert said of the first responders. A badge remembering 9/11 hangs in his work space.
Canadian granite was chosen because of the size of blocks available and because its greenish hue would play off the paving of the memorial plaza. Steel salvaged from the original WTC will be incorporated into the structures.
The memorial is estimated to cost $5 million. It’s expected to be dedicated May 30.
The work comes as advocates for 9/11 rescue and recovery workers push for Congress to extend a compensation program for people who developed illnesses after being exposed to dust from the towers.