Bow of New York contains 7 1/2 tons of steel from attack site

By John Hill
Press & Sun-Bulletin

A brand new Navy vessel and floating memorial to the victims of 9/11 will be commanded by a Binghamton-area native.

Chenango Valley High School graduate Cmdr. Curt Jones, 40, will command the USS New York, which was christened earlier this month in New Orleans.

The New York’s bow stem contains 7 1/2 tons of steel recovered from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to manufacturer Northrop Grumman.

Jones was born and raised in Binghamton, just north of Bevier Street. He graduated from CV in 1985, before attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston and joining the Navy.

The hulking, gray, 25,000-ton New York, with a motto of “Never Forget,” will be the first ship under Jones’ command. He called the assignment “completely humbling.”

“There’s so much tied up and represented in the ship,” Jones said. “I’m just a guy that grew up in upstate New York, and here I am now going to be in command of one of the newest warships … It’s just incredible.”

Jones spoke from Newport, R.I., where he and a crew are training. His wife and children live in Memphis.

Jones’ parents and siblings have moved from the area, but he said he still has friends in Binghamton.

His parents, Tom and Sandra Jones, live in Florida. They and the rest of the Jones family were on hand in New Orleans for the New York’s christening.

“I think he would have done whatever it was he decided to do … ” Sandra Jones said. “What I am most proud of is the kind of young man he has become.”

While he was already in line to command a ship, Jones said the fact he was from New York played a role in his getting this particular vessel.

“We’d hate to have somebody from Florida to be the first CO (commanding officer) of New York,” Jones said.

Jones didn’t know anyone personally who died in the terrorist attacks, but said he’s met the families of many victims since he was named prospective commanding officer of the New York. Many were at the christening of the ship.

“As you might imagine, it was a pretty powerful day,” Jones said.

The ship will be officially put into service — commissioned — in late 2009 in New York City.

The New York is an amphibious assault ship. Its primary job is to carry up to 700 Marines and their gear to wherever they need to go.

State names are normally reserved for Naval submarines, but former Gov. George E. Pataki requested the name be given to a surface ship involved in the war on terror to honor the 9/11 victims, according to the Navy.

The last ship to bear the name New York was a battleship that saw duty in both World Wars. Ironically, its keel-laying, the event marking the beginning of the shipbuilding process, was Sept. 11, 1911.

by Lionel Bascom February 29th, 2008 1 comment

USA Today Reports:

The completion of a permanent 9/11 memorial in New York is at least two years away, and the Tribute Center is the sole space near Ground Zero where a visitor can hear the anxious radio transmissions of a firefighter inside the south tower; see a twisted steel beam from the Trade Centers core; study the ID card of a husband who never made it home.

It has become a destination in its own right, and on Monday, less than a year and a half after it opened, the center welcomed its 400,000th visitor, a man from Kent, England, and his wife.

I said if I ever came to New York, this would be one of the first places I would come, said John ONeill, 23, a personal trainer from Galway, Ireland, who visited the center the day after it reached the milestone. Its overwhelming.

The $3.4-million center, opened in September 2006, was to be an interim space for remembrance and education while the permanent memorial, complete with a museum and Freedom Tower spiraling 1,776 feet high, was built at the World Trade Center site.

Now, some segments of the memorial complex will open at least a year later than originally planned. The tree-lined plaza, featuring waterfall-filled pools where the towers once stood, will not open until 2010, and the visitors center and museum will be unveiled in 2011. Freedom Tower is scheduled to open in 2012.

The new timeline reflected a more realistic schedule that became clear after construction began, says Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site. Well work as aggressively as possible to complete the project as soon as possible.

The Sept. 11th Families Association created the Tribute Center. The memorial will be built, says Jennifer Adams, the centers co-founder. It will be beautiful when its built, but we need something from now until then.

Permanent Link

WTC’S ‘1ST SPROUT’

By TOM TOPOUSIS, NY Post

A WHOLE OTHER LEVEL:Digital renderings show the progress planned for the World Trade Center site, including the Freedom Tower breaking street level this year.

March 17, 2008 — The reborn World Trade Center will begin rising above street level this spring – when the Freedom Tower’s steel frame emerges from its 80-foot-deep construction pit, officials say.

The tower itself is now just 10 feet from street level, Port Authority Executive Director Anthony Shorris said.

“We expect it to reach past street level in a few months,” he said.

Shorris and Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein, who is building three office towers at the site, said virtually every project at the World Trade Center is now under construction after years of cleanup, design and site preparation.

A time-lapse rendering of the 16-acre site prepared by the Port Authority shows the project coming together over the next five years like a massive jigsaw puzzle, with more than 10,000 construction workers assembling the pieces.

By the end of this year, the Freedom Tower’s steel will be racing skyward, while a steel base for the memorial is being set in place. And foundations for Silverstein’s three towers and the Santiago Calatrava-designed transit hub will be under construction.

By the end of 2010, the Freedom Tower and Silverstein’s Towers 2 and 3 will reach rooftop level, and the memorial plaza will be complete and ready for the planting of more than 400 trees.

Silverstein’s Tower 2, the second tallest at the site, will have topped out by the end of 2011.

“By the end of 2012, as they say, it’ll all be over but the shouting,” Shorris said at a New York Building Congress luncheon last week.

“What is falling into place is a construction-coordination machine of truly unprecedented complexity.”

The four towers inside the perimeter of the original World Trade Center site will include 141,000 tons of steel and 593,000 cubic yards of concrete.

A fifth tower is planned a block away on the site of the former Deutsche Bank building. That tower is slated to be complete by the end of 2012.

Just to clear sites for Silverstein’s three towers, the Port Authority excavated and hauled out enough dirt and rock to fill Giants Stadium.

Silverstein, who acknowledged that “things haven’t always gone as smoothly or as swiftly as everyone – including me – had hoped,” predicted that the final outcome in five years will create a new economic engine in lower Manhattan.

But Silverstein said the proof of progress for New Yorkers made skeptical by delays and missed deadlines will be the visible construction now shaping up.

“There has not been this much going on at the site since the cleanup concluded close to six years ago,” he said.

tom.topousis@nypost.com