*EPF409 05/30/2002
Quiet Ceremony Marks End of World Trade Center Recovery Efforts
(New York City honors attack victims, recovery workers) (860)

By Judy Aita
Washington File Staff Writer

New York City -- A heartbreaking silence fell over Ground Zero, the site of the former World Trade Center, May 30 as New York City stopped to mark the end of the recovery effort under way since the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed 2,823 people and injured thousands more.

The brief, simple ceremony focused on the victims of the attack and the men and women who, in the first days, struggled frantically to rescue survivors, and then continued day and night to recover remains and clean up the site where once stood the two 110-story office towers.

Although thousands attended the 30-minute ceremony -- including Mayor Michael Bloomburg, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York Governor George Pataki, and other elected officials -- there were no speeches, no prayers. It was a time for each American to reflect on his or her own tribute.

The ceremony began promptly at 10:29 in the morning, the time that the second tower to collapse fell to earth after both were rammed by commercial passenger planes hijacked by terrorists. The tolling of a fire department bell in the "5-5-5-5" pattern that denotes a fallen firefighter signaled the start of a solemn procession from the seven-story deep pit that has been cleared and leveled.

First up the ramp came an empty stretcher, bearing only a folded American flag to honor the almost 1,800 who died on September 11 and have not been found. The stretcher bearers took five minutes to walk up the long ramp through an honor guard of police, firemen, rescue and construction workers, city workers, victims, and family members to a waiting ambulance. A pipe and drum corps followed. An honor guard, which included some family members holding photographs of lost loved ones, fell in line behind.

Then a long recovery truck carrying the last steel beam from the site began its final journey up the ramp.

The 36-foot, 58-ton steel girder was taken down the night of May 28. The girder, column 1001B, which was at the southeast corner of the South World Trade Center Tower, had become the symbol of the massive clean-up effort as welders, iron workers, other construction workers and rescuers inscribed and taped remembrances on the beam during the eight months of work, creating a makeshift shrine to those killed in the attack. The beam was wrapped in black muslin and an American flag.

The procession paused at the top of the ramp while buglers played Taps, the traditional refrain for fallen heroes. Police helicopters flew overhead. The New York Fire Department and Police Department bands played "America the Beautiful." Then, passing by a huge sign saying "we will never forget," the procession moved out of the site onto the highway that rings Manhattan Island. Thousands of others lining the route applauded as the long line passed.

The simple ceremony marked the end of a Herculean effort that was physically and emotionally grueling for those on the job as well as the millions of Americans and foreign visitors who went to the site to pay their respects both to the victims and the heroic workers.

Toiling around the clock since September 11, workers cleared more than 1.8 million tons of debris from the site in a little more than eight months, completing the task three months ahead of schedule. The effort to remove the mangled mass of steel, concrete, glass and ash was overshadowed by the need to take care in hopes of finding remains of the victims. Groups of firemen and police carefully combed through areas by hand looking for remains and some members were always on duty to solemnly escort remains from the site. One searcher, for example, was a retired fireman who looked in vain for his son, one of the 343 fireman killed in the attack. More than 19,000 body parts were recovered.

The ceremony also marked the final day for the volunteers who had gathered in the area immediately outside the World Trade Center site from the first hours after the attack to do what they could for the rescue and recovery workers. In the early days, the volunteers provided everything from much needed gas masks to meals and bottles of water. And they were there until May 29 to greet the workers when they started their shifts and say "thank you" when they went home.

Some work remains to be done around the perimeter of the site. In the meantime both city officials and the New York City community at large have begun thinking about and discussing what is to be done with the 16-acre plot that was once a hub of commercial activity. One city art gallery has displayed about 60 concepts and proposals from architects and artists about what might rise from the ashes.

The city has named an architectural firm to coordinate the plans. City officials said that plans for a memorial and redevelopment of the site could be announced as early as July.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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