Columbia’s 9/11 Memorial focuses on never forgetting the attacks. Here’s a guide to it
Following the terrorist attacks in 2001, Brooklyn native Daniel Hennigan formed the 9/11 Remembrance Foundation of South Carolina to try to preserve the history of that day for future generations.
So in 2010, when the-now Columbia resident got a call from a battalion chief in the New York fire department asking if he was interested in bringing artifacts from Ground Zero to South Carolina, Hennigan jumped at the chance.
Later that year he and three firefighters from the Midlands drove to Manhattan to pick up two beams from the World Trade Center that were preserved in the wreckage.
“We took the beams, we said a prayer and we came back to Columbia.”
Those beams now stand proudly as the centerpiece of Columbia’s 9/11 Memorial on Lincoln Street in front of the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.
The monument’s designer, Ron Clamp, “took special care to make sure every element had a deeper meaning,” Mike Sonefeld, vice chairman of the Remembrance Committee, said.
For instance, the two beams are crossed in the shape of an X to symbolize the unity of the nation.
The beams are flanked by two granite towers that both appear to have a slice cut off the top. The two missing pieces sit at the base of the memorial, representing how “we never forget our fallen,” according to a plaque on the memorial.
Both the towers and the fallen pieces are etched with a design that mimics the windows of the World Trade Center.
Even the location is significant. Because the city of Columbia, Richland County and Lexington County all partnered to build the convention center, “it kind of makes it so that it’s everyone’s memorial,” Hennigan said.
Over the years several new elements have been added to the site.
Directly behind the memorial is a “Wall of Remembrance,” modeled after the one in New York’s Coney Island that lists the names of first responders who died on 9/11. The one in Columbia honors each of the Midlands area first responders and military service members who have died in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001.
There is also a statue of Fargo, the first Midlands area K-9 to die in the line of duty since the memorial was built.
Just last year the Remembrance Foundation received a sapling from the “Survivor Tree,” a tree that was rescued amid the rubble of Ground Zero and is now planted at the National 9/11 Museum in New York. The severely damaged tree was discovered in October 2001 and nursed back to health, according to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York. Visitors can find the Columbia sapling by walking down the flight of steps behind the memorial.
Sonefeld said organizers raised more than $750,000 in just about four months so that the memorial could be unveiled in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
However, there were still some bumps in the road.
During the construction, several of the granite plaques posted on the sides of the two towers shattered. Luckily, the plaques that have the names of the fallen Midlands first responders etched on them came out unscathed.
The day before the monument was set to be unveiled, the shrubbery was ruined and the organizers had to scramble to replace it.
Despite those challenges, Sonefled said the unveiling was a success, and the monument continues to attract more visitors with each passing year.
On Saturday, The Remembrance Committee will hold a ceremony at the monument to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The event will run from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and will feature several speakers including Cosmo Lubrano, a retired NYPD sergeant and 9/11 first responder, and Dawn Yamashiro, a Columbia resident whose brother was killed on 9/11. A bell will be sounded several times throughout the service to commemorate the times that each plane crashed during the 2001 terrorist attacks
“Our goal is for everybody to walk away from the experience with more information than they knew before,” said Hennigan.
