To mark 25 years since 9/11, the Tunnel to Towers (T2T) Foundation launched Steel Across America, a nationwide campaign transporting a steel beam from the South Tower of the World Trade Center to communities across the United States.
The tour also includes the 9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit, featuring artifacts from Ground Zero, documentary videos radio-transmission recordings.
First responders and others are invited gather in shared remembrance and pay tribute to those who answered the call on 9/11. By its conclusion, the tour will have traveled more than 10,000 miles, making more than 30 stops in 21 states and Washington, D.C., at landmark locations, sporting events and town squares.
T2T was established by the Siller family to honor FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller, a firefighter with Brooklyn’s Squad 1. On Sept. 11, Siller had just finished his shift and was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he got word over his scanner of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center. He returned to Squad 1 to get his gear and drove his truck to the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, but it had already been closed. Determined to respond with his fellow firefighters, Siller donned 60 pounds of gear and raced on foot through the tunnel to the Twin Towers. Siller died in the collapse.
In addition to this year’s 9/11 remembrance events, T2T provides mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders.
Learn more about Steel Across America and follow its journey: