Lansing - As the construction crane lifted 980 pounds of rusty, mangled steel from the World Trade Center onto its base, a small group of onlookers watched with pride.
The new 10-foot monument will permanently stand in Wentworth Park as a reminder of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The park, which is located on the shores of the Grand River, will be home to the monument and three trees representing the states where the planes crashed.
On Wednesday, the windows of the nearby Lansing Center reflected the monument’s image above the river. Mike Bristor, the memorial’s landscape architect, said the addition will help Lansing residents remember the events of Sept. 11.
“It shows community spirit,” Bristor said. “(It) creates a place to reflect on last year’s event with a live memorial.”
Construction on the base of the structure began Aug. 27 using Bristor’s designs.
Murdock Jemerson, director of the Parks and Recreation Department for the city of Lansing, said a city committee worked for the last several weeks to attain a piece of the World Trade Center to remember the events of that day.
“We got our confirmation letter, and (we) were 137 out of 150,” he said.
Hoping to secure a large remnant from the fallen buildings, city officials drove all night in August to Fresh Kill Landfill in Staten Island, N.Y. The trek was a 33-hour round trip.
Once the Twin Towers relic was brought back to Lansing, it was temporarily stored and erected by construction crews Wednesday. The memorial was wrapped in a blue tarp to prevent vandalism until its dedication as part of the city’s commemoration ceremony on Sept. 11.
Brian Barthelmes, a Kolt & Serkaian Communications associate who handled media relations for Wednesday’s activity, said the next phase of the construction will involve building granite panels on the four sides of the base.
Three of the sides will represent Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York - states where the hijacked planes crashed - and the fourth side will have the city of Lansing emblem and a commemorative inscription.
City officials also planted Pennsylvania’s state tree, the eastern hemlock, behind the monument, with plans to add the flowering dogwood for Virginia and the sugar maple for New York. Officials are considering building a small plaza around the structure.
A small crowd of Radisson Hotel employees discussed the events of Sept. 11 as they gathered to see the monument across the street.
“It’s huge for the hotel, and an honor to be in the shadow of this great monument,” said Kenric Hall, the general manager of Lansing’s Radisson Hotel. “Hotel employees can walk past it everyday and remember how Sept. 11 affected them. It seems like just yesterday we were watching it on TV.”
The city of Lansing will dedicate the monument at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Bristor said he is happy to see the tribute well under way.
“They had a vision about wanting to have a monument here in Lansing and went out and got it done,” Bristor said.
For more information, visit www.cityoflansingmi.com/memorial.
Brian Charlton can be reached at charlt10@msu.edu.
