It was a day which was a long time coming for many and on Tuesday shovels finally hit the ground for a new memorial for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The memorial will be built inside the new Cos Cob Park and Tuesday’s ceremony officially started the work which will begin in earnest for an August completion. Close to 30 people attended the event, many of whom were family members of victims of the attacks.
The memorial is being privately funded through the Greenwich Community Projects Fund Inc. and has been donated as a gift to the town. The goal, organizers have said, is to have a beautiful and appropriate memorial in a location in town where anyone can access it at any time.
“It was an incredibly rewarding day,” James Ritman, co-president of the Greenwich Community Projects Fund Inc., said after the groundbreaking. “It was a proud moment for every individual, not just the board and the families. We had so many donors. We had a thousand people and businesses giving to us and the schools have been big supporters too.”
The memorial will consist of two glass towers facing the water. The towers, which will represent the World Trade Center, will have American flags carved into the glass and the names of all 32 victims who were either Greenwich residents or close to the town will then be carved into the stripes of the flags.
Now the focus is primarily on the construction and having it complete in time for this year’s anniversary on Sept. 11. Rittman said the plan is the construction of the memorial will be finished within 75 to 90 days putting the completion date sometime in August with plenty of time left.
The site has been discussed as the future site of the town’s annual observance of the attacks.
“Every single dollar we raised was critical to getting where we are today and we have so many people to thank for that,” Rittman said.
Additional coverage will appear in the May 13 edition of Greenwich Time.
Ground is broken on the new memorial in Cos Cob Park. – Photo courtesy of Aberdeen Associates, Inc.