Where Did All the 9/11 Steel Go?

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__Special Thanks__
Evan Montgomery — co-producer, filming, and editing

__Description__
This steel, once part of the Twin Towers, is now a memorial honoring the tragic events of 9/11. Standing over 22 feet tall and weighing 12.5 tons, it's just one of over 2,200 fragments distributed across the U.S. and the world. In this video, we explore the fascinating journey of the steel—its forensic value in investigating the collapse, its financial role in scrap markets, and its transformation into relics revered in memorials.

Learn how the steel from Ground Zero was meticulously tracked and distributed, from the wreckage of 200,000 tons to memorials worldwide. We'll trace the creation of the USS New York from this very steel and examine how pieces of the towers have been enshrined in local communities far from Manhattan. Yet, these fragments, less than 1% of the total steel recovered, carry immense symbolic weight, evoking memories of resilience, loss, and the complex narratives tied to 9/11.

If you're interested in how objects can become powerful symbols of history, this video will take you deep into the story of the World Trade Center’s steel—its history, its role in reconstruction, and its lasting significance in the global collective memory.

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__About the Channel__
Architecture with Stewart is a YouTube journey exploring architecture’s deep and enduring stories in all their bewildering glory. Weekly videos and occasional live events breakdown a wide range of topics related to the built environment in order to increase their general understanding and advocate their importance in shaping the world we inhabit.

__About Me__
Stewart Hicks is an architectural design educator that leads studios and lecture courses as an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also serves as an Associate Dean in the College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts and is the co-founder of the practice Design With Company. His work has earned awards such as the Architecture Record Design Vanguard Award or the Young Architect’s Forum Award and has been featured in exhibitions such as the Chicago Architecture Biennial and Design Miami, as well as at the V&A Museum and Tate Modern in London. His writings can be found in the co-authored book Misguided Tactics for Propriety Calibration, published with the Graham Foundation, as well as essays in MONU magazine, the AIA Journal Manifest, Log, bracket, and the guest-edited issue of MAS Context on the topic of character architecture.

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__Special Thanks__
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images, Storyblocks, and Shutterstock.
Music provided by Epidemic Sound

#architecture #urbandesign

[Magnus-wd]

I'm favoured, $27K every week! I can now give back to the locals in my community and also support God's work and the church. God bless Sonia bless America.

[CydeWeys]

You missed some of the story: Some tons of it were sent to NIST for structural analysis, which was written up in the NIST World Trade Center Disaster Investigation to determine the exact mechanisms by which the buildings' structure failed. By the time I was working at NIST they were pretty much done with the WTC steel and it was rusting away in a back parking lot outside the Building Research Building on the main NIST campus in Gaithersburg, MD. Not sure where it went after that, maybe off for scrap, but for some years a good heap of it was there at NIST being analyzed and then rusting away outside.

[johnnymac]

A lot of the asbestos and dust was dumped and buried in a superfund site that was an old zinc factory outside Palmerton Pennsylvania. We locals only know because after a few days of nonstop dump trucks, some people finally followed it back to the source at the landfills in NYC.

[nmgg]

I can understand why some people feel the scattered smaller memorials take away from the museum and memorial in new york but I think ultimately its a good idea. The US is huge and many of us will never be able to go to new york to pay our respects but having smaller memorials around the country gives opportunity to go and have that moment. In the long run it also means that over time it will still be seen and remembered across our country not just in new york because however you want to view it good or bad or in between that day affected our entire world.

[ronanmc]

We have a piece here in Waterford City, Ireland. It’s is beside the historic Bishop’s Palace in the centre of the City. There is a long history of emigration from Waterford to New York to work in the fire and police departments and close ties over many generations because of this. We are proud to have it and it is now an important part of our ancient city.

[benposthumus]

0:11 they forgot the dot at the border of North Dakota and Manitoba in the International Peace Garden. I’m Canadian and that is the only one I’ve been to

[WelshBathBoy]

I think the placing of the steal as memorials around the country reminds me of the 10s of 1000s of war memorials around the UK to commemorate the first world war, and subsequently the second world war. Each list the names of the primarily young men who lost their lives in the wars. Almost every city, town, village, hamlet, train station, church, chapel, university, will have a similar memorial listing those killed. Their locations are varied, some are in churches, some in parks, some at crossroads, some in train stations, some will be central to a town, some will just be on the side of the road, some hidden, but each marking the important event and the places link to it. 911 was a hugely traumatic event for all of the US, as the world wars were to every corner of the UK, so sharing the memorials around the country for me is very symbolic in how it effected every part of the country.

[Chaotic_Pixie]

It honestly makes sense for pieces to be in Ireland & Italy. Irish and Italian immigrants have a long history of serving for the FDNY and the NYPD. I can also understand towns, particularly throughout New England & the upper Eastern Seaboard who sent volunteers to help, in whatever way they could. I know there were so many personal watercraft and even some of our ferries that just started full-tilt towards NYC from Connecticut knowing people would need to get off the island. Small towns across North America that took in strangers when planes were grounded in some of the most obscure places. People have ties to what happened that day that you just wouldn’t expect.

[sctte-]

I still find it super creepy and ironic the examination site happened to be called fresh kills.

[baltimoreluke]

If you didn't live through 9/11, you don't understand it. On a random Tuesday morning we all went to work or school, and then the world changed forever.

[cadenelson]

Can you imagine eating some soup in China not realizing that the steel spoon you’re eating from was actually entirely from a column of the World Trade Center.

[agbeyenumadison]

Hey Stewart,
This is an odd moment for me. Four years ago I wrote my college essay about the 9/11 memorial in my town. During the pandemic, it was my last year before a lot would change and the gesture of torn metal meant a lot to me. For someone who has lived a life generally affected by the tragedy but was not alive to witness it, seeing the steel covered in moss, lichen, and spiders became comforting that life goes on. Partially because of that essay, I'm a senior in architecture school. You coming to talk at my university was a strange highlight to my education, especially since I've been watching your videos from the beginning. These memorials aren't just a reference to a distant place, they're places of themselves with their own stories spinning off of them like eddy currents. Visiting the small one in my town was impactful, just in a different way than visiting ground zero. Anyway, keep up the good work.

[scottwooledge]

WTF?! Dude just yesterday I was at the WTC site and thinking, “There was so much material removed from here. I wonder where they put it all?!” How dare you read my mind for content?!” Now, do the concrete. What became of that? Great video. Worth the wait. Thanks.

[ryan.t.pierce]

I was alive during 9/11 but not old enough to fathom or remember that day. My local fire station had a piece of steel and memorial. Learning about the event and then realizing thousands of memorrials were set up across the country to this one single day really told me how massive this day was to thr country and world.

[michaelimbesi]

Hi, I’m a naval architect. Your section on the USS New York had two errors that I feel I should correct.

1. The USS New York is not a battleship. A battleship is a large and heavily armored surface combatant designed to engage other large and heavily armored surface combatants with large-caliber naval gunfire. There has not been a battleship constructed since the 1940s, as they were rendered obsolete by the longer range of aircraft.
2. The steel from the Twin Towers was sent to the foundry that cast the ship’s stem, which is the piece of the hull where the bow meets the water. There is no mold shaped like a ship’s entire hull anywhere because hulls aren’t cast.

Also, I can totally understand putting a bunch of the steel from the towers onto barges and selling it as scrap. There was quite a lot of debris to dig through as they were searching for survivors, and the stuff they removed had to be put somewhere. And it’s not like there are a whole lot of giant empty lots lying around New York City.

[pieman]

The one in Christchurch New Zealand also served as a reminder as it hosted the World Fire Fighter games known as The Memorial Games the year after tower was hit. My medals from those games and the "SERVIMUS" eight-pointed star (strength, efficiency, resourcefulness, valour, integrity, unity, service), translates to serve are struck from metal from a girder.
The honour was reciprocated when fire fighters came to assist New Zealand when Christchurch suffered major damage after a strong earthquake.
Love you guys in the states "Kia Kaha" - "Stay Strong" from New Zealand.

[Microtonal_Cats]

4:42 "Governor Pataki set aside 7 and a half tons for himself." WTF??

[barryrobbins]

8:07 People in NYC were told that all the dust in the air after buildings collapsed was not a health hazard.

[jackcarver]

My dad use to talk about all the people he lost in 9/11. He had known most of them through business but even still some he would talk to weekly or even daily. I remember watching the president say " I hear you" in the ruins of the tower. We lived in Iowa but it felt like next door.

[ewmlloyd]

At 4:54, you've got the wrong calendar. September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday.