Breathtaking untold story of what happened to the WTC's twisted wreckage on the night of the attacks... and the ongoing battle over 'microremains'

The 36-foot-tall, 58-ton steel beam is covered in tributes and poignant messages of hope from first responders and families of the lost.Now standing sentinel at New York's 9/11 Memorial and Museum, The Last Column was the final piece of debris to be cleared from the World Trade Center site, after an arduous nine-month rescue and recovery operation.It is among the largest of the thousands of pieces of mangled steel and pulverized concrete now housed in the underground museum in downtown Manhattan. But what happened to the rest – the nearly two million tons of material removed from the site 25 years ago?A new book can finally tell the story in the most exhaustive detail yet.Drawing on years of research and interviews, Scattered Steel: The Afterlife of the WTC by Samuel Holleran and Max Holleran reveals how sacred fragments found their way to all 50 states and beyond – including some extremely unlikely destinations.'As early as the night of the attacks,' the authors write, 'trucks laden with debris were heading out of the still-smoldering WTC site, taking the Battery Tunnel to Brooklyn and, from there, crossing the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island's Fresh Kills.'Fresh Kills – rumored to be the location where the mafia had dumped many of their unfortunate victims – was once the largest landfill in the world. But, less than 48 hours after the attack, it was already beginning to struggle under the pressure of thousands of tons of pulverized concrete and twisted steel suddenly landing at its doorstep. So a new plan emerged – to send larger pieces first to scrapyards in New Jersey, where they were met by FBI agents and archeologists to sift through every item by hand, searching for human remains. Non-metal fragments continued to go to Staten Island. The Last Column is covered in thousands of messages and tributes at the 9/11 museum Two million tons of debris was removed from the site in New York 25 years ago Experts sifted through tons of mangled steel and pulverized concrete for human remains Within a few months, the vast majority of steel – around 95 percent – had already been sold into the international scrap market.'Over 200,000 tons were sold to wholesalers, primarily in India, China, and Turkey (some of whom were not made fully aware of the origins of their purchase),' write the book's authors.'By the first anniversary of the attack, most of the metal frame from the structures was beginning a new life in Asia as rebar, cladding, and even cookware.'Of the steel that remained – beams contorted into painful-looking twists, some items tiny, others massive – most was held in storage at JFK airport's Hangar 17 for nearly a decade, largely forgotten about until interest in turning the material into permanent memorials grew.Initially, pieces were gifted to local churches, and also to fire houses and police departments, in recognition of their life-saving work and to acknowledge a sense of alliance with their fellow first responders in New York.'One early memorial... was placed in a prominent position at the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, a Catholic parish that is steps from Manhattan's Penn Station and historically served workers in the nearby printing and tailoring trades,' write the authors.'Father Mychal Judge, a priest at Saint Francis's who was also an FDNY chaplain, rushed downtown to the WTC on 9/11 to minister to victims; he was struck by a piece of debris and killed, becoming the first recorded casualty and the only clergy member to die in the attacks.'A piece of crumpled steel, brought to the church by the fire department in 2002, was placed in a recessed space off the church's nave, and a gold-plated rose was fastened below it so that it appears to grow from the steel.' Large pieces of steel that weren't sent for recycling ended up at JFK airport's Hangar 17 A W-shaped piece from the WTC's signature arches at Indiana University, Pennsylvania The WTC cross (left) was adopted as a symbol of hope and was even blessed by a priest on site; a similar cross memorial at Breezy Point, Queens In November 2024, the rose was stolen. And while the thief was later arrested and charged, the rose was never recovered.Another memorial emerged just two days after the attacks, when construction worker Frank Silecchia spotted a 17-foot crossbeam sticking out prominently from the rubble. Because of its obvious resemblance to a cross, it was adopted as a symbol of hope by his fellow 'hard hats' and was even blessed by a priest on site.It, too, is now housed in the 9/11 museum.Similarly, even before the clean-up was complete, recovery workers at Ground Zero were cutting out primitive shapes – hearts, crosses, Stars of David, plain circles – as a kind of memorial.These were passed on to visitors – to politicians, and to military officers to put on their dog tags – and kept by workers as good luck talismans. 'When we had a little slack time,' ironworker William Quinlan told the authors, 'we would cut out some crosses… We would give those crosses to the families. And they loved it; they really appreciated it. And it made us feel good.'Only very few pieces of WTC steel were sent overseas. Less than a year after the attacks, for instance, one of the first public memorials was unveiled in Ontario, Canada – in a park that celebrates the love and loyalty of a family dog.In Beautiful Joe Park, in the town of Meaford, stand two carved stones that include an I-beam from the WTC. The monument is dedicated to the sniffer dogs who searched for survivors. Recovery workers cut out primitive shapes – hearts, crosses, Stars of David, plain circles – as a kind of memorial One early memorial was placed in the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in New York, for a priest who died in the attacks Twisted steel beams form the Patriot Memorial in Wellington, Florida. Visitors are encouraged to touch the artefactThe memorial at Oak Lawn, Illinois, features intricate carvings, including the depiction of a police officer and two hands clasped together, alongside pieces of salvaged steelThe book notes: 'It is meant to commemorate a Port Authority Police Department dog named Sirius that worked with Officer David Lim, who put the Labrador in its kennel after the Twin Towers were hit and was unable to retrieve the kennel from the basement of the South Tower before the collapse (Lim survived).'Sirius is listed in many places as a fallen officer.'The following year, London opened a memorial garden in Grosvenor Square, featuring a piece of salvaged steel girder preserved in resin.And nine years after that, a much more significant, twisted stack of steel was unveiled in the city. It found a permanent home in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2015.One piece stands outside the NATO headquarters in Brussels, and another on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israel. The five-acre monument is the only one outside of the US that lists the names of every victim, including five Israeli citizens.One of the most significant international installations exists in Padua, Italy. Called Memoria e Luce (Memory and Light), it is shaped like an open book, with the open page pointing to the Statue of Liberty in New York. Within the 56-foot tall glass and steel sculpture is a 20-foot steel WTC beam.Of course, large-scale projects like this did not come cheap. The Padua project, for instance, cost more than ten million euros ($11.5 million). But much smaller civic projects also happened across all 50 states, carried out almost on a DIY basis. A piece of steel would be ordered for free from a 612-page Port Authority PDF, transported at the town's own expense, and often simply mounted on a simple plinth over the course of a weekend.'Most have been erected in liminal spaces between suburban office parks and parking lots,' note the authors, 'on roadsides, and outside public buildings in small towns. 'Some are lacking a plinth or landscaped surroundings; others are in areas that have not historically been home to memorials. 'The steel column at the Fire Training Center in Overland Park, Kansas, for instance, stands a stone's throw from the 'burn buildings' used in fire training - a jarring juxtaposition. 'A narrow five-foot-long piece of steel plate is mounted on a staircase landing in the small Holocaust museum managed by a Fort Lee, New Jersey, synagogue. Artist Heath Satow's sculpture 'Reflect, in Rosemead, California, incorporating an I-beam from the WTC. The hands feature 2,976 interlocking birds representing victims from the attacksThe 9/11 Memorial in Weehawken, New Jersey, pictured in front of the Manhattan skylineThe court of Valor monument at Prospect Hill Cemetery & Cremation Gardens, Pennsylvania, is topped with a 3,000-pound, early 10-foot-long steel beam The Schuylkill memorial in Philadelphia features a steel beam 'crashing down on a reflective granite base,' pointing towards Ground Zero, while the reflective surface symbolizes hope and healing'Unlike traditional memorials that announce themselves with familiar iconography from roundabouts and promenades, the memorials made from WTC steel are often in unexpected, and unexceptional, spaces.'In almost every one, however, the steel beams have been kept in their original form – a visceral reminder of the destruction that rained down on New York on September 11, 2001, and the human pain that continues today as a result. One exception is the massive seven and a half tons that were melted down and used in the hull of the USS New York. The ship's motto: 'Strength forged through sacrifice. Never forget.'In a deeply moving, large-scale work of art in the 9/11 Museum, one that commemorates the victims through 2,983 individual watercolor squares, a quote from Virgil's Aeneid has been forged from WTC steel. It reads: 'No day shall erase you from the memory of time.'And, the book adds: 'The Mars exploration vehicles Opportunity and Spirit, both launched by NASA in 2003, each include pieces of aluminum from the World Trade Center that were repurposed to serve as protective shields for cables. 'The fragments on both rovers are engraved with American flags and are expected to remain intact for millions of years.'None of this has been without controversy, however. While the painstaking search through the wreckage resulted in around 60 per cent of human remains being positively identified and returned to loved ones, for more than 1,000 victims' families, there has been no such closure. A small number of salvaged steel went to memorials overseas, including this one in Pompeii The memorial in Jerusalem is the only one outside of the US that lists the names of every victim, including five Israeli citizens One piece stands outside the NATO headquarters in Brussels In London, a twisted stack of steel stands in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park The Padua project, Memoria e Luce, cost more than ten million euros ($11.5 million) to completeSeven and a half tons of WTC steel were melted down and used in the hull of the USS New YorkThey argue that 'microremains' – those too small for visual identification or caught within larger pieces of material – still exist at Fresh Kills, and have called for the rubble there to be moved to a cemetery. A lawsuit filed by the group WTC Families for Proper Burial reached the Supreme Court but was ultimately dismissed.For those families, these memorials therefore take on an even more sacred significance.'The days after 9/11 brought few intact bodies to those searching for the thousands of casualties,' write the authors. 'The dead were already spoken about as martyrs, the rescuers as heroes, but their remains were only present as dust. Alternative death rites were needed.'The proxy funerals and mourning rituals were performed not on bodies but on an architectural component.'The dissemination of 'relic steel' helped to create some sense of collective closure to comfort the nation.'Scattered Steel: The Afterlife of the WTC by Samuel Holleran and Max Holleran, is published by Cornell University Press, September 15