Almost from the day the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, Frank Perrucci, the chairman of the “September 11th…Bayonne Remembers Committee,” thought about bringing a piece of that wreckage from across New York Harbor as part of a tribute to the Bayonne residents who had died in the attacks.
Along the way, Perrucci and the committee managed to secure other tributes including the world famous 100-foot-high monument called “To the Struggle Against World Terrorism,” which was designed to help express the shared sorrow that the Russian people felt for those in the United States and elsewhere who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks.
“There was one ball that was three whole floors filled with typewriters, computers and everything else.” – Frank Perrucci
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In 2008, the committee added a second monument to the site, 13 three-foot-high granite pillars with the names of Bayonne residents who died in the 1994 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and in the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania.
But last month, Perrucci’s dream was realized when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey delivered a piece of steel from the Twin Towers to be used as part of a memorial to the victims.
The 4-by-6-foot piece of steel will be mounted in a piece of granite and will be located in the lawn area of Harbor View Park near the two existing 9/11 monuments.
“This comes just in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11,” Perrucci said.
While the committee hadn’t intended to mark the anniversary with the installation, Perrucci said things simply worked out that way, and the steel monument will be unveiled at this year’s 9/11 commemoration.
A trip back in time
The effort to secure the piece of steel began several years ago when Perrucci petitioned the Port Authority.
Christopher O. Ward, executive director of the Port Authority, said that requests for steel come from all over the world.
Once approved to receive a portion of the steel, Perrucci went with two artists to the airport hangar at John F. Kennedy Airport where a large amount of the wreckage of the World Trade Center is stored.
“I broke down in tears,” Perrucci said, breaking down again even recalling the moment he walked into the hangar and saw the twisted metal and other artifacts of the tragic day laid out there.
The place not only contained steel beams, some twisted into odd shapes by the intense heat of the airplane fuel, but also whole offices from the towers that had been compressed in the collapse.
“There was one ball that was three whole floors filled with typewriters, computers and everything else,” Perrucci said.
Seeing these things brought it all back to him, he said, the memory of that terrible day 10 years ago when nearly 3,000 people perished.
He was in awe, he said, and humbled as the artists from Pompilio & Sons of Jersey City – who designed the 13 pillar monument for Bayonne – selected the piece of steel they needed to make the new monument.
A humble, but significant addition to the monument area
While they could have selected a larger piece, the cost was a factor.
“Some of their ideas could have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Perrucci said.
He had something more humble in mind, something that people could look at and touch.
The Port Authority donated the steel, and the committee is paying the cost for building and installing the monument, Perrucci said.
“The monument is being built in a way that will allow people to walk up to the piece of steel and touch it,” Perrucci said.
Perrucci credited DPW director Gary Chmielewski with helping make it possible, and he said the memorial would become an important part of the park, something that truly connects what happened 10 years ago with Bayonne.
For Perrucci, this is one more great thing that has happened. Last year, when the city struck a deal to sell a portion of the former Military Ocean Terminal to the Port Authority, Perrucci feared that Harbor View Park and its existing monuments would have to be moved.
But just before the 9/11 ceremonies last year, Perrucci learned the park and its monuments will remain where they are, and the fact that this new monument will be installed there is further confirmation that people will be able to go to there within sight of the former World Trade Center and pay tribute to those who died in the attacks.
“The fact that we got the steel in time for the 10th anniversary is great,” he said. “Everything fell into place. This just tops everything off for me.”
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.