Full Breakdown
Traveling Steel: How World Trade Center Artifacts Anchor 9/11 Memory Across America
By Drooid · · How we work
The Nationwide Steel Tour
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit founded by Frank Siller, organized a 2024-2025 road tour that carried a 21-foot, roughly 17,000-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center. The “Steel Across America” campaign visited post offices, baseball fields, town squares and schools in dozens of states, including stops in Oklahoma, California, South Dakota, Texas and Washington, D.C.
Community Memorials Using WTC Steel
- Monticello, Iowa – Police Chief Britt Smith oversaw the installation of a 21-foot beam in the town’s public-safety district. Smith designed the memorial and selected the site.
- Erie, Pennsylvania – Former council member Mark Aleksandrowicz secured a beam in 2010 and installed it outside the Erie County Public Library in 2014. The memorial includes a timeline of the attacks and serves as an educational touchstone.
- Bradenton, Florida – Retired fire commissioner Brad Ranney and his son Brad Ranney Jr. retrieved a 3,500-pound beam in 2010, cut it in half to represent the Twin Towers, and placed the pieces at Southern Manatee Fire Rescue, also referencing the Pentagon and the hijacked plane.
Official Statements & Responses
He added that honoring his brother Stephen—who ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with 60 pounds of gear on that day—motivated the foundation’s broader acts of kindness, such as mortgage-free homes for wounded first responders.
Britt Smith described the Monticello beam as “a promise… to never forget” and emphasized that the physical artifact “grounds” the community in national history.
Data & Statistics
- Beam dimensions: 21 feet long, ~17,000 pounds.
- Tour scope: 35 events across the United States, with attendance ranging from a few hundred to about 1,000 people in Texarkana, Texas.
- Community impact: Thousands of attendees reported emotional reactions, including a firefighter at Ground Zero who was “overcome with emotion” when he touched the steel.
On-the-Ground Reports
At a school in Florida, children begged to climb a ladder to the beam, prayed over it, and called it “a sacred piece of history.” In Oklahoma City, a police officer whose uncle died on September 11 joined the crowd, noting the personal connection many felt despite geographic distance. Volunteers reported strong support from local businesses that released employees to view the artifact.
Verbatim Quotes
- “Everywhere we went was incredible -- the support, it was mind-boggling,” — Stephen Siller Jr.
- “Would Stephen make that run again through the tunnel, knowing he was gonna die?” — Frank Siller
- “The goal is simple, for as many Americans as possible to remember the sacrifice that was made on September 11, 2001 and the sacrifice that’s been made ever since,” — Frank Siller
- “It is a very humbling and grounding experience to be able to walk up and put your hand on something so pivotal in our nation’s history,” — Britt Smith, Monticello police chief
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
No source provides contradictory figures regarding the beam’s size, weight, or the number of tour stops. Coverage of community reactions is consistent across outlets, though detailed attendance counts are limited to a few locations.
The traveling steel beam and its permanent installations illustrate a nationwide effort to keep the memory of September 11 alive, linking personal loss to collective remembrance through a tangible piece of history.
