Steel I-beam from Twin Towers in its 'final resting place' in 9/11 Memorial at Spring Park

A 3,000-pound steel I-beam pulled from the World Trade Center debris almost 23 years ago after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and later gifted to Poudre Fire Authority has found its final resting place.

The beam is now the centerpiece for the 9/11 Memorial at Spring Park, located behind Poudre Fire Authority Station No. 3, which officially opened Monday, July 1. The beam is surrounded by 343 pavers, representing the 343 firefighters killed in the 2001 terrorist attack.

The memorial will be a place where the community can reflect and remember the attacks and the aftermath, as well as remind new generations of the tragedy and sacrifices of first responders, so the community will hopefully never forget, city of Fort Collins and Poudre Fire Authority leaders said during the opening ceremony July 1.

“It’s a testament to the impact that 9/11 had on all of us,” City Manager Kelly DiMartino said. “To have a place of reflection is really special for our community.”

Looking at the beam takes now-retired Capt. Jim Salisbury back to ground zero, where he and eight other Poudre Fire Authority firefighters responded after the attack to cut through debris and beams — just like the one on display at the memorial — to find survivors and recover victims. The Fort Collins firefighters responded with Colorado Task Force 1, a statewide disaster response group.

“It brings back a lot of memories of things that we saw there,” Salisbury said. “Things that are good and things I don’t want to think about.”

The other PFA firefighters who responded to ground zero alongside other Colorado firefighters were Andy Vigil, Jeff Gillespie, Len Lindholm, Joe Gutierrez, Bryan Hanson and Tim England. Two other firefighters who went on to work for PFA after the attacks — Rick Vander Velde and Jimmy Durkin — also responded but were working at different departments at the time.

Many of those firefighters — all now retired from the department — were in attendance at the ceremony.

A few of the firefighters who responded, including Salisbury, went to New York City to escort the beam to Fort Collins in 2015. The beam was a gift to Poudre Fire Authority as a thank-you for their search and rescue work at ground zero.

Doug Lee, a retired battalion chief, said bringing the beam from New York City to Fort Collins “was an emotional trip” because of the public’s response to their journey. Everywhere the group passed through with the beam, people stood on overpasses and on the sides of roads, holding American flags, waving and cheering.

The journey back with the beam “was so cool,” said now-retired Capt. Len Lindholm, who also responded in the aftermath of the attacks. “It brought us to tears sometimes.”

Lindholm said the emotional cross-country journey with the beam was successful thanks to Ed and Joanne Rupert. The Fort Collins couple not only helped support the team financially throughout its trip, but Lindholm said Joanna made sure the firefighters who were in any way effected by the attacks had the mental health support they needed, which included starting a peer support group for those firefighters.

“A lot of dealing with it is just talking to each other,” Salisbury said.

A permanent memorial at Spring Park — chosen because of its proximity to PFA Station No. 3 — has been the plan since the beam arrived in Fort Collins, but it took years to gain the funding needed to build the memorial. Funds were raised through the Fort Collins City Give, a program through which charitable donations may be made to city projects and facilities.

In the end, the memorial was made possible thanks to contributions from the Fort Collins City Council and Poudre Fire Authority, and donations from residents and small businesses to corporate partners including Anheuser-Busch, DiMartino said.

Before the memorial was completed, the beam called the Poudre Fire Authority Training and Education Center its home, draped in a flag and surrounded by photos of the Colorado firefighters during their time at ground zero.

For those firefighters, the opening of the memorial brought on feelings of closure.

“To see this finalized, it's kind of a relief that it has a final resting place,” Lee said.

For now-retired division chief Rick Vander Velde, he hopes the memorial can be a place where the community can come to remember and reflect on the events of Sept. 11 but also help new generations understand these events — including a new generation of firefighters, who weren't yet born when the attack happened.

“I hope they understand they can stand on our shoulders,” he said of the next generation of first responders, and continue to help people and their communities as part of the fire service.

Vander Velde said he hopes the memorial will remind people that “the care and compassion, the ability to come together as a country at any time is important.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Steel beam centerpiece of 9/11 Memorial at Spring Park in Fort Collins