In downtown Indianapolis, right by the Central Canal and next to a fire station, stands a memorial for the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history.
Twenty-five years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people, including nine Hoosiers, died when Al Qaeda operatives hijacked commercial airliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
A third airliner headed to the U.S. Capitol was stopped by passengers and crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Dozens of Hoosier first responders went to help look for survivors and recover the dead in New York as part of Indiana Task Force 1.
Soon after the attacks, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey kept pieces of steel and other artifacts from the World Trade Center at a nearby hangar.
In 2010, the port authority began distributing the pieces to museums, town governments, schools, nonprofit organizations, and community groups around the country.
Indianapolis Fire Department firefighter and paramedic Greg Hess, who was part of Indiana Task Force 1 in New York, spearheaded an effort to acquire the steel beams from the Port Authority.
Hess also established Project 9/11 Indianapolis, which raised money for the Indiana 9/11 Memorial.
When Indiana got ahold of a pair of 11,000-pound World Trade Center beams, a steel fabrication company based in the Stout Field neighborhood on the west side was tasked with making them safe for display at what would become the Indiana 9/11 Memorial.
Indiana Steel Fabricating, Inc. is used to working on big projects, including the Eli Lilly Conference Center downtown and various hospitals and churches throughout Central Indiana.
But this project was different.
When the flag-draped beams made their way to their headquarters at 4545 W. Bradbury Ave. in July 2011, Kenneth Brown, Tim McDonough and Randall Murphy, all relatively new employees at the company back then, looked with awe.
“It kind of gave you chills,” said McDonough.
Getting the beams from New York to Indiana
Indiana Steel Fabricators’ co-owner and executive director Mike Jordan, said the decision to help was a no-brainer and an honor.
“It was a definite, immediate yes,” he said. “We thought it would be a cool project to be a part of. Obviously, it was shortly after 9/11 and this is something that we’ll get to go by and our people can see all the time.”
In 2011, the beams were brought from the Port Authority’s hangar at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York to Indiana by a red, white and blue semi-trailer truck painted with a large Statue of Liberty on the front.
The beams themselves were draped in a large U.S. flag, like the casket of a fallen veteran.
Thousands of bikers on motorcycles and a helicopter followed the procession to Richmond, Indiana. They had a ceremony and then headed to downtown Indianapolis, where the beams would stand again at the future 9/11 Memorial site at 421 W. Ohio St.
The semi would continue to the west side. When the steel beams showed up at Indiana Steel Fabricators’ front door, the workers there were left speechless.
“When it first came in, everybody stopped what they were doing and watched it come in with cold chills,” said Brown, the shop’s supervisor.
No one was allowed to touch the beams until officials performed a flag folding ceremony. Workers were also given instructions on preserving all materials that came off the beam during its preparation, including dust and debris.
“There’s probably a bucket in a warehouse in New York right now full of dust,” said McDonough, the shop’s team leader.
Working on history
When all the officials left the beams in their hands, the workers got a chance to reflect on the task ahead of them.
“There was definitely a good 30- to 40-minute pause when everybody left, and it was left in our hands to accomplish,” Brown said. “We all probably took the time to just have our awe.”
One of the first things they noticed when the beams were brought into their shop was a change in smell.
“Our shop usually smells like a bunch of (metal) grinding and stuff like that. When it came in, our whole shop smelled like sulfur and jet fuel. It was kind of eerie,” Brown said. “Still to this day, I cannot get that smell out of my mind.”
When they took a look at the beams, they were able to see the destructive power of the attacks up close.
Through markings on the beams, they knew the two were from the 74th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers and fell about 800 feet without bending.
“You could see marks on it where it had either burnt and melted or bent a little bit. You could see where it was attached to another piece and broke off,” said Murphy, a fabricator and layout welder. “You don’t know if it was the heat up there in the air when it happened, or if it happened falling down and hitting the ground. You could see it actually ripped it.”
Brown was tasked with removing concrete encased inside the beam and bits protruding past the edges, collecting every bit that fell off.
“We had to make it safe for people to touch when it went down to Ohio Street,” he said. “But they didn’t want us to put any extra marks, dings, grinds, scratches or cuts on the beam. They wanted it exactly how it was.”
The workers installed reinforced base plates that would allow the beams to stand.
“It was such a significant thing that everybody wanted to have a piece of it. Everybody wanted to be able to tell a story that ‘Hey, we did this. We had our hand on it,’” McDonough said.
The work took about two weeks. After their part was done, Indy Art Forge, led by Indianapolis firefighter Ryan Feeney, installed a bronze bald eagle on top of one of the beams.
The Indiana 9/11 Memorial was completed and dedicated on Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks.
It has since been expanded to include an 800-pound stone piece of the Pentagon wall damaged during the attack, a tree grown from the sapling of a tree found at the bottom of Ground Zero and a wall made of Indiana limestone that reads “Never Forget.”
The pride is still there
Many Indiana Steel Fabricators employees there for the preparation of the World Trade Center beams have retired or moved on to other companies. Those that remain feel pride in having worked on the project.
For Brown, the work was proof that he chose the right profession.
“This was cool for people who really want to get dirty for a living,” he said. “It was very rewarding for us.”
Brown’s children, now 24 and 16, were too young to experience 9/11. Most of what they knew about it growing up came from his association to the beams. His wife put a photo of him working on the beams on a T-shirt for his son one career day. Another photo hangs on the wall of a local restaurant.
“When we go to Cheddar’s on County Line Road, there’s the booth that has the finished photo of the memorial. When my kids sit there, it’s a conversation piece for at least 20 minutes,” Brown said.
McDonough said he feels pride every time sees the memorial.
“Honestly, even now when you go down there to the canal and you see it standing, you’re thinking ‘Dang, I had a part in that.’”
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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