PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. — It’s time to take steel from the World Trade Center currently under lock and key and put it on display, said Maureen Caddigan.
The Prince William Potomac District Magisterial Supervisor said she wants to place the steel at a memorial and reflecting pool at the county government center in Woodbridge honoring those who died inside the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The steel would be placed erect into the ground, and it would also honor a volunteer firefighter from from Dumfires and two other county residents killed when the twin towers collapsed.
The steel has been kept under guard at a public safety facility in Nokesville since it arrived in Prince William two years ago. A request made by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in 2011 sought designs for a permanent memorial to feature steel has slowed the process of putting the beams on display. Officials, during a closed session, “shortlisted” four designs with price tags for the memorials ranging between $1 and $5 million, said Tracy Gordon, with the county’s Office of Executive Management.
If Caddigan has her way, the steel beams will be up in time for the 12th anniversary of the attacks this September without building any sort of memorial, which could come later.
“We worked very hard to bring the steel to Prince William County, and now I think it’s time our citizens began to see the steel pieces placed in public,” said Caddigan.
At the direction of Caddigan, county staff members assigned to the World Trade Center steel project will meet soon to discuss what to do next with the steel.
Last year, a fire engine that was at the base of the World Trade Center when it collapsed arrived in the county. It will be featured at the Americans in Wartime Museum planned for Dale City.
Steel from the World Trade Center can currently be seen and touched at an exhibit in the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico.
