Survivor Stairs at 9/11 Memorial. Photo by Norma Thatcher
Most of us tend to think of a stairway going UP in positive terms.
- Climb the steps of success
- The view is better at the top
- Work your way up
- Reach toward the light
- Stairway to Heaven
But the image of a stairway going DOWN is generally considered in negative terms.
- Headed toward failure
- Living a life in a downward spiral
- Regressing – going backward instead of forward
- Surrounded by darkness
- Hell bound
But during the attacks in New York on September 11, 2001, there were people who knew some stairs that led DOWN as life-savers. Originally named the Vesey St. stairs, they went from an elevated plaza to street level. To hundreds of people making their way out of the burning and crumbling towers, that staircase represented literally the final steps to safety.
One of the believed last survivors to descend the steps, Tom Canavan, said there was no other way for him to get out.
The steps, called by various names such as Staircase of Vesey St., Survivors’ Stairway, Survivors’ Steps, 9/11 Stairway, were mostly intact as that sad day closed, but over the nearly year-long recovery period, they deteriorated.
There were squabbles about what to do with the steps. They were in the way of rebuilding, so there was a group that wanted to get rid of the staircase. But there was another side that recognized their relevance.
Patty Clark, another survivor who escaped by using the steps, felt that the stairway symbolized all who were touched by the horrific event. The staircase was damaged, yes, just like the American people were damaged.
Fortunately, after the stairway was listed as one the most endangered historical places in America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a salvage plan was created. The staircase was eventually placed into the museum base and bears silent testimony to the events of that day.
The 9/11 Memorial is one of a kind. You don’t go there to enjoy yourself. Feelings of overwhelming tragedy and a deep sense of loss wash over you along with disbelief and anger/resentment/hatred for those who caused 9/11. Listening to the final phone calls from people on the planes seems so intrusive of those final personal moments. Abiding sadness is so omnipresent.
And yet…those survivor steps stay in my memory. I see them as a sign of the courage and selflessness that so many men and women displayed that day fifteen years ago. I see them as a reminder of how Americans came together, worked together to help one another. And I see them as a symbol of the hope and courage it takes to go on.
But never forgetting, not ever losing sight of what happened that day. Maybe we remember 9/11/2001 like the New York Times headline in a story by Guy Trebay on August 13, 2014:
“A Moment in Time Captured in Pieces”
To my readers: As we remember September 11, please share your thoughts or feelings.
On 9/11/2001 I was sitting on a couch watching the morning news on T.V. in an apartment in State College, PA . My husband was asleep in an adjoining bedroom, having worked the night shift at a local glass factory. As I watched the images of that horrific morning unfold – the planes hitting the buildings at the World Trade Center, then the buildings collapsing, the people covered in ashes running for their lives, seeing the Pentagon burning, learning that the “unaccounted for” airplane had crashed into an empty field not far from where we live in PA, I just wanted to make sure that my family was safe. I remember calling my daughter, son, sisters, and brothers – taking a head count. And I won’t forget the look of astonishment on my husband’s face when he awoke, and I told him what had happened. I have read several books about what happened that day. “Flight 93” by Tom McMillan, “Let’s Roll” by Lisa Beamer, and Life Magazine, “Faces of Ground Zero,” We have visited the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA, several times, and we hope someday to visit Ground Zero in New York City. But after all these years, I still don’t “get it.” May God continue to bless our wonderful country.
Surely that day is one that we each recall where we were and what we were doing. Thanks for sharing.