‘Graffiti’ Scrawled All Over the New World Trade Center — But It’s Not What You Think
NEW YORK (AP) — On most construction
projects, workers are discouraged from signing or otherwise scrawling on
the iron and concrete. At the skyscraper rising at ground zero, though,
they’re being invited to leave messages for the ages.
“Freedom Forever. WTC 9/11″ is scrawled
on a beam near the top of the gleaming, 104-story One World Trade
Center. “Change is from within” is on a beam on the roof. Another reads:
“God Bless the workers & inhabitants of this bldg.”
One of the last pieces of steel hoisted
up last year sits near a precarious edge. The message on it reads: “We
remember. We rebuild. We come back stronger!” It is signed by a visitor
to the site last year – President Barack Obama.
The words on beams, walls and
stairwells of the skyscraper that replaces the twin towers lost on Sept.
11, 2001, form the graffiti of defiance and rebirth, what ironworker
supervisor Kevin Murphy calls “things from the heart.” They’re
remembrances of the 2,700 people who died, and testaments to the hope
that rose from a shattered morning.
WTC 'Graffiti'
- Ironworkers James Brady, left, and Billy Geoghan release the cables from a steel beam after connecting it on the 104th floor of 1 World Trade Center, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012 in New York. The beam was signed by President Barack Obama with the notes: "We remember," ''We rebuild" and "We come back stronger!" during a ceremony at the construction site June 14. Since then the beam has been adorned with the autographs of workers and police officers at the site. The beam will be sealed into the structure of the tower, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.
- In this Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012 photo, ironworkers James Brady, left, and Billy Geoghan release the cables from a steel beam after connecting it on the 104th floor of 1 World Trade Center, in New York. U.S. employers added 163,000 jobs in July, a hopeful sign after three months of sluggish hiring. The Labor Department said Friday, Aug. 3, 2012, that the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent from 8.2 percent in June. July's hiring was the best since February. Still, the economy has added an average of 151,000 jobs a month this year, roughly the same as last year's pace. That's not enough to satisfy the 12.8 million Americans who are unemployed.
- This Jan. 15, 2013 photo shows drawing of a car on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Construction workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- This Jan. 15, 2013 photo shows Spanish graffiti left by a worker on a steel column on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Construction workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- In this Jan. 15, 2013 photo, Antony," left his graffiti on a steel column on the 102nd floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- This Jan. 15, 2013 photo shows graffiti left by Michael Chertoff, the former director of Homeland Security, on a steel column on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Construction workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- FILE- In this Aug. 2, 2012 file photo, a construction worker signs a ceremonial steel beam at One World Trade Center in New York. The beam was signed by President Barack Obama with the notes: "We remember," ''We rebuild" and "We come back stronger!" during a ceremony at the construction site June 14. The beam, having since adorned with the autographs of workers and police officers at the site, will be sealed into the structure of the tower, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.
- This Jan. 15, 2013 photo shows graffiti left by visitors to the World Trade Center on a steel column on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Construction workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- In this Jan. 15, 2013 photo, autographs cover a wall on a top floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Construction workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- This Jan. 15, 2013 photo shows graffiti left by workers on a steel column on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Construction workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
- This Jan. 15, 2013 photo shows a tribute in graffiti to Lilian Fredricks that a construction worker left on a steel column on the 104th floor of One World Trade Center in New York. Fredericks was killed in the 2001 terror attacks. Workers finishing New York's tallest building at the World Trade Center are leaving their personal marks on the concrete and steel in the form of graffiti.
“This is not just any construction
site, this is a special place for these guys,” says Murphy of the 1,000
men and some women who work in the building at any given time, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.
“Everyone here wants to be here, they want to put this building up,” Murphy says. “They’re part of the redemption.”
On a frigid, windy winter day, with
the 9/11 memorial fountain straight below and the Statue of Liberty in
the distance, Murphy supervised a crew of men guiding the first piece of
the steel spire that will top out the building at a dizzying 1,776 feet
– the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.
In the rooftop iron scaffolding for
the spire, 105 floors up, a beam pays homage to Lillian Frederick, a
46-year-old administrative assistant who died on the 105th floor of the
south tower, pierced by a terrorist-hijacked airliner.
A popular Spanish phrase is penned
next to two names on one concrete pillar: “Te Amo Tres Metros Sobre el
Cielo,” meaning, “I love you three steps above heaven.”
Some beams are almost completely
covered in a spaghetti-like jumble of doodled hearts and flowers, loopy
cursives and blaring capitals. Many want to simply mark their presence:
“Henry Wynn/Plumbers Local (hash)1/Sheepshead Bay/Never Forget!”
Families of victims invited to go up
left names and comments too, as did firefighters and police officers who
were first responders. “R.I.P. Fanny Espinoza, 9-11-01″ reads a typical
remembrance signed by several family members of a Cantor-Fitzgerald
employee.
Former Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff wrote: “With you in spirit – those who perished, those
who fought, those who build.”
Time and daily routines have softened
the communal grief as the workers carry on, trading jokes and gruff male
banter. Some ends up in whimsical graffiti marking World Cup soccer
matches, New York Giants Super Bowl victories and other less-weighty
matters that have gone on since construction began six years ago. One
crudely drawn map of the neighborhood down below shows the location of a
popular strip club.
People on the ground below will never
see the spontaneous private thoughts high in the Manhattan sky. The
graffiti will disappear as the raw basic structure is covered with
drywall, ceiling panels and paint for tenants moving into the 3 million
square feet of office space by 2014.
Knowing this, workers and visitors often take photographs of special bits of graffiti, so the words will live on.
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