PITTSBORO -- A long chunk of steel that was once part of the World Trade Center in New York made its way across Chatham County on Saturday in a procession of firetrucks and police cars.
At ceremonies in Pittsboro, Goldston and Siler City, a trumpeter played taps and "Amazing Grace." A bell rang out. There were speeches about not forgetting how the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked, killing almost 3,000 people and toppling the center's twin 110-story towers.
And about remembering firefighters, police officers and other emergency workers who lost their lives trying to save others.
But what many people wanted to do Saturday was feel a piece of the World Trade Center, a crusty and jagged 19-foot-long I-beam.
They touched it. They rubbed it. They held on to it.
The artifact was brought back from New York late last week to be placed in a memorial that is still being planned. While pieces of the Trade Center have been donated to memorials across the nation, Chatham County's will be one of the few in North Carolina.
Lynn Mitchell, a former American Airlines employee who lives in Bear Creek, placed her hand on the steel and bowed her head as tears fell. Two of her friends, a flight attendant and a pilot, were on one of the hijacked planes.
"This is not on the television," she said. "This is not reading about it. You're standing here, feeling it and looking at it and you're smelling it and you're remembering all of those affected by that day. There's a lot of heartbeats in that steel."
"I wanted to touch it," said Ricky Ziblay, 52, an auto technician who works in Sanford and was moved to tears after seeing it, "because it's a personal connection to a part of our history. You think about the people who died, and the people who lived. That piece of steel has a million stories in it."
Plans for how the beam will be displayed are just now beginning, as is fundraising to buy land and build a shelter for it. But organizers, who say they will rely on private donations, want to have something in place by the 10th anniversary of the attacks later this year.
Chatham's fire marshal, Tom Bender, helped collect the beam from a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Thursday. It will be stored until a memorial site is ready.
"When I first looked at it, something hit me," he said. "It's a special piece. ... You reflect upon that day and where you were."
Pam Stewart, a county commissioner who has a son who is a firefighter, acknowledged getting questions about why people in Chatham County wanted the piece. She said it will serve as an important touchstone to remember 9/11, and especially as a tribute to emergency responders who died trying to help others.
"This is not about the tragedy," she said. "It's about the goodness of humanity."
