They once helped support more than 100 commercial floors, but now two beams recovered from the collapse of the Twin Towers has come to Holtsville to lend a different kind of support.
The Holtsville Fire Department dedicated the lengths of steel, arranged to look like the Twin Towers in a sober ceremony yesterday, on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Acquisition of the steel beams began back in 2008, when then-Holtsville Fire Chief Todd Metro began negotiations with the Port Authority to secure a piece. After years of administrative paperwork, the beams finally found their home in Holtsville.
"It's a memory of what happened," said Chief Joseph Castiglione, who lost a fellow officer and a friend who volunteered for the Sayville department on that day. "Come whenever you want to thank them for what they did, and for those people who have lost someone, stop in and say a prayer."
Metro led the dedication ceremony, delivering a moving speech to the dozens of volunteers standing at attention.
"For as long as this memorial stands," Metro said, "we will remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11th. We'll pay tribute to the courage they showed, the sacrifice they made, and the lives they spared. We are all here as volunteers because we believe. We believe in good and evil...and we choose good. We believe in right and wrong...and we choose right."
The memorial site and the beams are open to the public, located at the northwest corner of the firehouse, along Waverly Avenue.
