A ‘moving’ 9/11 tribute

With rumbling tailpipes, a team of motorcyclists ushered a large World Trade Center beam across Florida.

Before the attacks of Sept. 11, the nearly 12-foot-long beam supported a window in the WTC's north tower for more than 30 years, according to a report written by Matt Soergel of The Florida Times-Union.

The steel was hauled by firefighters from Bradenton, Fl., to the Southern Manatee Fire and Rescue Department, where it'll be used in a monument to those who died on 9/11. The bikers, most of whom were firefighters, took shifts while accompanying the steel on its journey to its new home, the report says.

A former New York City firefighter waited for the steel beam to arrive so he could take his shift. The ex-firefighter, Dave Ellsworth, had a personal connection to the remnant steel.  On 9/11, he lost his friend, Brian Hickey, a captain in the New York City Fire Department. The two men met in 1972, when they were 18 and new volunteer firefighters on Long Island in Bethpage, NY.

"He was there with his guys, doing what he loved," Ellsworth said in the Times-Union report.

Thanks to Matt Soergel and The Florida Times-Union, see more photos of the memorial's stop in Nassau County, Fla.

By Michael Frazier, Sr. Communications Manager for the 9/11 Memorial