INDIANAPOLIS–The Indiana 9/11 Memorial, which is located on Ohio St., in downtown Indianapolis, will be rededicated Saturday, on the 20th anniversary of the attacks. Even if you’ve visited the memorial before, you’ll have reason to make the effort again, with an expansion and some improvements.
“At the World Trade Center all of the trees were destroyed, with the dust and the concrete, just trampled and all that, except one,” said retired Gen. Stewart Goodwin, executive director of the Indiana War Memorials.
Thursday morning a crew planted a sapling in a large, newly formed concrete circle at the edge of the memorial platform.
“Now they’re taking saplings off of this tree and it’s called the Survivor Tree,” said Goodwin. “There’s a New York state law that says an individual cannot own one of these trees. It has to be owned by an organization.”
The tree planted Thursday is a sapling from that tree, and will now reside in Indianapolis, as part of the memorial.
The memorial, which was originally dedicated as the Indianapolis 9/11 Memorial, was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2011. Saturday, it’s rededication ceremony will include a speech from Gov. Holcomb, and the viewing of the newest addition to the steel beams from the Trade Center towers and marble monuments.
“We found and were able to obtain an 800 lb. piece of limestone from the wall,” said Goodwin, referring to a chunk of Indiana limestone from the wall of the Pentagon.
“I think everybody knows that the Pentagon is made out of (Indiana) limestone. In fact a lot of the buildings in Washington, D.C. are made out of limestone because the limestone that we have here in the state is very carveable. That’s why people like to build with it.”
He said the limestone sat in a storage facility for a while after it arrived. Later he realized it looked like, and was in the shape of the state of Indiana.
Goodwin explained that the memorial is now maintained by the Indiana War Memorials Commission, partly because of the number of military personnel lost in the military actions since 9/11.
