By Stephanie Loder
Years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, pieces of mangled steel from the site of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings were used to create memorials throughout the nation.
After the attacks, relics of the World Trade Center – including shafts of broken metal, warped elevator doors, and a crushed taxicab – were entombed in Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The hangar’s purpose was somber as it served as a way station for remembrances of September 11 until memorials could be created.
Some of the steel was obtained through the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and brought to Egg Harbor Township where memorials were created.
In 2011, steel was dedicated at the Farmington Fire Company on Maple Avenue.
In 2014, steel was dedicated on the grounds of the Bargaintown Fire Company on Mill Road.
At the Atlantic City International Airport, a piece of steel was dedicated in 2013. A plaque on a memorial outside the main terminal reads:
“This steel, salvaged from the World Trade Center after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 stands here in memory of the heroes we lost and in honor of the first responders who performed so bravely in the aftermath of 9/11.”
Bargaintown Fire Company President Dennis Hofmann retired as the Little Ferry police chief after spending 32 years in law enforcement. Hofmann was at work at the police department, located in Bergan County, when the terrorist attacks happened.
He decided to live in Egg Harbor Township for his retirement and he joined the Bargaintown Fire Company.
Hofmann said he was compelled to get a piece of steel to be memorialized at the Bargaintown Fire House.
“I wanted people down here to never forget, and I think people are forgetting,” Hofmann said.
Hofmann reached out to friends who were port authority police officers to locate the steel for Bargaintown. He received a letter in the mail notifying him to come pick up a piece of steel from the hangar for the memorial.
The steel was identified as artifact 1-0003S, an identifier of where the steel was found at the World Trade Center site.
Each year, the township holds a ceremony in memory of those who lost their lives on 9/11.
Hofmann said the ceremony rotates between the two firehouses, one year at Farmington and the next at Bargaintown.
Farmington’s piece of steel was transported to the firehouse in a cardboard box draped with an American flag. The relic was received by then-Farmington Fire Chief Leonard Tilley and then-Township Fire Chief Bill Danz and incorporated into a memorial outside of the Farmington Fire House.
Other 9/11 artifacts are located throughout New Jersey, including Heritage Park in Absecon, the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, Woolwich Township in Gloucester County and Brooklawn in Camden County.
Former Atlantic County Fire Marshal Harold Swartz, who died in 2017, also obtained a 10-foot section of steel from the World Trade Center in 2015 which was housed at the Firefighters Museum of Southern New Jersey in Galloway Township.
Stephanie is a freelance writer with 40 years experience covering NJ news for The Asbury Park Press, The Courier Post, The Catholic Star Herald and The Press of AC. Email her at stephanieloder59@hotmail.com
