Post date: Sep 05, 2011 3:48:11 PM
A memorial fashioned from the remains of part of the steel framework of New York's World Trade Center -- demolished in the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- is unveiled by London Mayor Boris Johnson, in front of former Fire Department of New York Commissioner Thomas Von Essen.
BATTERSEA PARK, CENTRAL LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 5, 2011) ITN - An artwork fashioned from a piece of the steel wreckage of the World Trade Center, was unveiled in London by the city's mayor on Monday (September 5), days before the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The work was commissioned by the 9/11 London Project, a charity set up to educate future generations in Britain on the hijacked airliner attacks, that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania
Unveiling the artwork, Mayor Boris Johnson remembered the 67 British citizens killed in the attacks.
"Folks, ladies and gentlemen, when a bunch of sick and deluded hijackers - and let's remember that is what they were - flew civilian aircraft at the World Trade Center and other targets, they were launching an attack, not just on America, but I believe, on this country as well. And it can't be stressed too often, that more Britons - more Britons - died in that attack than in any previous terrorist attack in our history."
The ceremony was witnessed by guest Thomas Von Essen, New York's fire chief at the time of the attacks, who said the sight of the steel, tens years after his officers has wrestled with it in the wreckage of the twin towers, was painful.
"We couldn't move it, no matter how many men tried to pull it, you couldn't move it. So, I don't see… I see a lot of pain when I look at it. I see men that were crushed by it and, you know, that beautiful building that came down around thousands of innocent people."
The memorial, called "After 9/11", was designed by New York artist, Miya Ando.
The steel was donated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.