9-11 Memorial Brownsburg Fire Territory

The September 11th memorial features the beam before you which was recovered from the World Trade Center in New York City, after its collapse.

The memorial is in the downtown area near the Arbuckle Apartments. The beam was carefully oriented such that it points directly toward One World Trade Center in New York City from where it came from. 

The piece of steal before you is an actual piece from the World Trade Center collapse September 11th, 2001.   The September 11th attacks were a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil; nearly 3,000 people were killed. The attacks involved the hijacking of four planes, three of which were used to strike significant U.S. sites. American Airlines flight 11 and United Airlines flight 175 were flown into the World Trade Center’s north and south towers, respectively, and American Airlines flight 77 hit the Pentagon. United Airlines flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to overpower the hijackers. The plane was believed to be headed to the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

The exact number of victims particularly the number of those killed at the World Trade Center is not definitively known. However, the official death toll, after numerous revisions and not including the 19 terrorists, was set at 2,977 people. At the World Trade Center in New York City, 2,753 people died, of whom 343 were firefighters. The death toll at the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., was 184, and 40 individuals died outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

On September 11, 2001, groups of attackers boarded four domestic aircraft at three East Coast airports, and soon after takeoff they disabled the crews, some of whom may have been stabbed with box cutters the hijackers were secreting. The hijackers then took control of the aircraft, all large and bound for the West Coast with full loads of fuel. At 8:46 AM the first plane, American Airlines flight 11, which had originated from Boston, was piloted into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. Most observers construed this initially to be an accident involving a small commuter plane. The second plane, United Airlines flight 175, also from Boston, struck the south tower 17 minutes later. At this point there was no doubt that the United States was under attack. Each structure was badly damaged by the impact and erupted into flames. Office workers who were trapped above the points of impact in some cases leapt to their deaths rather than face the infernos now raging inside the towers. The third plane, American Airlines flight 77, taking off from Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C., struck the southwest side of the Pentagon (just outside the city) at 9:37 AM, touching off a fire in that section of the structure. Minutes later the Federal Aviation Authority ordered a nationwide ground stop, and within the next hour (at 10:03 AM) the fourth aircraft, United Airlines flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey, crashed near Shanksville in the Pennsylvania countryside after its passengers informed of events via cellular phone attempted to overpower their assailants.

In 2009, Brownsburg firefighters learned of the opportunity to secure an “artifact” of the World Trade Center for the purpose of memorials. After securing a court order issued by the United States District Court of Southern New York, ownership of the artifact was transferred to Brownsburg Fire Territory. On April 7th of 2010 four Brownsburg Firefighters traveled to JFK Airport to take possession of the artifact. Through a decade of work, the memorial has finally found its home. 

When it came time to take possession of the artifact, four Brownsburg Firefighters drove to Hangar 17 at JFK airport to retrieve the piece of the World Trade Center allocated to Brownsburg.  The firefighters brought a US flag with them to retrieve the artifact. The flag was draped over the artifact when they loaded it on to the trailer and it stayed on the artifact in some part for the next ten years.  The flag was not removed from the artifact until a few months ago when the artifact arrived at the monument site.  After the artifact was brought to Brownsburg, it was kept on the trailer and over the next nine years would do its work by going to different community events as a tool to help us remember the events of September 11th, 2001.