The City of Miramar unveiled its new 9/11 memorial monument Monday, honoring the nearly 3,000 individuals who lost their lives 22 years ago in a series of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
The monument, which also stands in tribute to veterans who have given their lives in service, features two steel beams from the Twin Towers in New York City.
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The 82,000-lb. columns were delivered to Miramar in 2011, and the city broke ground on the monument on Sept. 11, 2021.
The rusted and mangled remnants of the World Trade Center now stand parallel to each other, just as the Twin Towers did, in Miramar Regional Park, atop a pentagon-shaped concrete and stone base.
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"We continued to affect a rescue the best that we could," veteran and Pentagon first responder John Stone said. "I thought those were going to be the worst 36 hours of my life; that first 36 hours of the response. Little did I know that the next days, years, or months and years, were going to be a lot worse."
The ceremony included deliveries of the Firefighter's Prayer, as well as the Police Officer's Prayer, as well as a moment of silence corresponding with the time that each of the two towers of the World Trade Center were hit on this day 22 years ago.
"Towards the end of the day, when we were all headed home, no trains were moving, but you only had bus transportation," Navy Chief Petty Officer Melody White said, remembering being in New York City on 9/11. "One gentleman that I saw that was full of the soot, full of everything, eyes bloodshot red, and was just walking, and that he had no emotion, no nothing, and that, right there, was when I knew I had to do something, and so that's when I enlisted into the armed services."
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A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter also performed a flyover above the steel beams in Miramar Regional Park at approximately 9:03 a.m., when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower.
All passengers aboard that flight 22 years ago were killed instantly, as well as an unknown number of individuals in the tower.
"Army Staff Sgt. Juan L. Rivadeneira of Davie was killed when an insurgent suicide bomber detonated a vest bomb and struck his unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan. He was 27 years old. Army Corporal Jorge E. Villacis of Sunrise died when his unit was attacked by an insurgent with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device," Congresswoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz said, remembering those from South Florida who lost their lives in service during Operation Enduring Freedom, which was initiated in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "They made the ultimate sacrifice, not returning to their families, because they fought to protect ours."
