At 9/11 memorial, new recognition for a longer-term toll
NEW YORK • When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list.
The granite slabs were installed on the memorial plaza this spring. They recognize an initially unseen toll of the 2001 terrorist attacks: firefighters, police and others who died or fell ill after exposure to toxic substances unleashed in the wreckage.
The unusual addition reflects a memorial that is evolving as the aftermath of 9/11 does. And for families like Joanna Reisman’s, the new 9/11 Memorial Glade gives their loved ones a place in the landscape of remembrance at ground zero.
A firefighter’s widow, she emphasizes that the losses thousands of families suffered on Sept. 11 were horrific.
“We just have to recognize that there were others, too,” says Reisman, whose husband, Lt. Steven Reisman, searched through the World Trade Center debris for remains, and then died in 2014 of brain cancer.
Subtle and sculptural, the memorial glade features six stone pieces inlaid with steel salvaged trade center steel. They jut from the ground along a tree-lined pathway.
Unlike the plaza’s massive waterfall pools memorializing people killed on 9/11 — those whose names are read at anniversary ceremonies — the boulders are not inscribed with the names of those they honor. There is no finite list of them, at least not yet.
Instead, nearby signs dedicate the glade “to those whose actions in our time of need led to their injury, sickness, and death,” including first responders, recovery workers and community members at the attack sites.
The collapse of the trade center’s twin towers produced thick dust clouds, and fires burned for months in the rubble.
Many rescue and recovery workers later developed respiratory and digestive system ailments potentially linked to inhaled and swallowed dust. Some were diagnosed with other illnesses, including cancer.
A visitor touches one of the granite slabs at the 9/11 Memorial Glade at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list.