‘Their souls are in that steel’: 9/11 beam makes emotional stop in Indianapolis before return to NYC

A 21-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower arrived in Indianapolis last month as part of a nationwide tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a tribute that will ultimately end up back at Ground Zero.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation brought its "Steel Across America" tour to the War Memorial and Museum on Aug. 19, marking the tour’s 31st stop. The beam is traveling more than 10,500 miles through 21 states and Washington, D.C., before returning to New York City for a Sept. 11 commemoration.

The piece of steel recovered from Ground Zero in the days after the attacks by first responders who rushed to the site has since become a symbol of the nearly 3,000 civilians, firefighters, , emergency workers and military personnel who died that day.

"For the past four months, communities across the country have welcomed this sacred piece of American history with incredible emotion," Tunnel to Towers Chairman and CEO Frank Siller said in a press release. "Watching people stand in front of that steel, hugging it, praying over it, weeping, reminds me every single day of why we do this work. "

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The Indianapolis ceremony included a color guard, a Pipes and Drums procession, the national anthem performed by the Voices of the Indianapolis Fire Department and an invocation from Indianapolis Fire Department Chaplain Mike Gatliff.

Indianapolis Fire Division Chief Tom Neal and Timothy Winslow, a retired major general and executive director of the Indiana War Memorial and Museum, also addressed the crowd about the connection between the city’s first responders, and the legacy of 9/11.

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"Bringing this steel to Indianapolis, and to a museum that has stood for over a century as a tribute to American sacrifice, is deeply moving," FDNY Lt. Jack Kielty, a Tunnel to Towers board member, said. "Indiana veterans and first responders understand what it means to serve. "

The event also highlighted Indiana’s own connection to the attacks. Nine Hoosiers died on Sept. 11, while Indianapolis Task Force One sent rescuers to Ground Zero. Six members of the team later died from illnesses linked to their work in the toxic environment, according to the Indiana War Memorial.

Scott Nokes, a veteran and Tunnel to Towers recipient, spoke to attendees about the significance of allowing people to see the steel in person.

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"Out of the 2,977 lives that were lost, there’s over 1,000 bodies that were never recovered specifically from Ground Zero in New York," Nokes said. "Their souls are in that steel, and if you touch it, you feel it. "

The foundation’s tour is designed in part to connect younger Americans with an event that many were too young to remember or were not alive to witness. Nokes said seeing the artifact firsthand offers a connection that cannot be replicated by books or documentaries.

The Indianapolis stop was followed by an appearance at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. The tour’s final stops include West Point, Boston and Washington, D.C., before the steel returns to New York City.

When the steel returns to New York City on Sept. 11, Frank Siller and members of the Siller family will carry it through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, retracing the route Stephen Siller took 25 years earlier after strapping 60 pounds of gear to his back and running toward the World Trade Center. The steel will accompany the procession through the tunnel but will not enter or stop at the World Trade Center site.