Clear blue skies cast sunshine across the White House's South Lawn and Ellipse – where a 16,900 pound steel beam from the South Tower of the World Trade Center made an appearance on Tuesday, Sept. 8. The skies were similar to those of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, President Donald Trump recalled.
Trump honored 9/11 victims and first responders at a memorial event near the White House, presenting one family with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"This battered piece of steel here today on the Ellipse is a reminder that America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume, no evil can conquer, and no terror can destroy,"
Trump said at the event in Washington, DC.
The president's remarks came at a stop on the the Steel Across America tour in which a the Tunnels to Tower Foundation brought a 21-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center across the country. The tour will return to New York City on Friday, Sept. 11, after making over 35 stops in its 10,500-mile trip around the United States, which will culminate with stops at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in New York and at MetLife Stadium at a New York Giants vs. Dallas Cowboys football game on Sunday, Sept 13.
The president's stage was sandwiched between the display of the 21-foot beam and an FDNY branded red firetruck.
Trump lived in New York City the day of the attacks, and he reflected on his experience going down to the site of the World Trade Centers to see the devastation. He acknowledged "immortal heroes" in the event that specifically recognized the firefighters and first responders who lost their lives.
"I looked out my window, and I saw things that I never want to see again. We're never going to see them again," Trump said.
Family members of Welles Crowther, known as the "The Man in the Red Bandana," were honored by Trump. The president presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Crowther’s mother, Alison, and sister, Paige. On the day of the attack, Crowther, a 24-year-old equities trader, ran up and down the stairs of the South Tower of the World Trade Center to save others, where he ultimately lost his life when the tower collapsed.
"Today, in honor of his incredible bravery and all of the other countless unknown acts of heroism that day, it is my privilege to award the very special, the highest honor that we give, highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom," Trump said.
The steel beam and the organization toured the country in honor of Stephen Siller, an FDNY firefighter who lost his life on the day of the attack. CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, Frank Siller, is the brother of Stephen. Other stops included the Flight 93 Memorial, Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida (where then-President George W. Bush was during the attack), the United States Military Academy at West Point and Mount Rushmore.
Board chair Brad Blakeman also gave remarks and told his story as deputy assistant to Bush during the attack. Blakeman was at the White House on Sept. 11, 2001 and also lost his nephew, who died in New York City responding to the attack.
Also in attendance at the event were U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican who represents the district that Crowther and his family are from, and the Trump administration's Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who survived the attacks because he did not go to work at the World Trade Center that morning. At the time, Lutnick served as the CEO of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which sat between the 101st to 105th floors of the North Tower, but he was bringing his son to his first day of kindergarten when the first tower was struck.
"This is the first time in years that he wasn't there early in the morning," Trump said of Lutnick.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump honors fallen 9/11 heroes as South Tower steel beam tour reaches DC
