Erosion, Errors Prompt Green Bay To Take Down 9/11 Memorial

Green Bay officials marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks Monday by starting to dismantle a local memorial to those killed.

The monument, which was donated by a group of private citizens in 2005, has two large replicas of the World Trade Center towers that sit on a granite base shaped like the Pentagon. But because it was built using low-grade granite, inscriptions of the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the attack have become illegible from exposure to the elements. It also includes errors in some of the airlines and flight numbers that were hijacked by terrorists.

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt was in office at the time to dedicate the memorial and was there Monday to lead a ceremony in which the memorial was deaccessioned. He told a crowd of police and firefighters the city needs to, “properly memorialize that event.”

“Now, while today we deaccession this monument, collectively we can do better than the monument that is before us today,” he said.

Part of the structure will be preserved. A roughly 2-foot section of a twisted steel girder from one of the World Trade Center towers will be on display in the lobby of the Green Bay Police Department. It was ceremoniously removed by a group of firefighters Monday morning.

Green Bay Fire Department Chief David Litton spoke of the 343 New York City Fire Department members who were killed in the attack and what they must have experienced.

“As you look at this girder and it’s 1-inch thick steel and you see how it’s warped and twisted, can you imagine what was going on that day? That’s just a small piece of what happened there,” Litton said.

Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith spoke of 72 police officers who were killed in New York, Washington D.C., and one who was aboard United 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. He called that day a “defining moment of a generation” and added, “this steel girder that’s going to be at the police headquarters at least temporarily and then put in a permanent home, is going to be there for our children and our children’s children so that they can remember the sacrifice on that day.”

Green Bay is considering construction of a new public service building that may eventually be the girder’s permanent home.