90.1 FM San Luis Obispo | 91.7 FM Paso Robles | 91.1 FM Cayucos | 95.1 FM Lompoc | 90.9 FM Avila
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

San Luis Obispo-based 9/11 memorial will include I-beam from Twin Towers

The City of San Luis Obispo will soon have a 9/11 memorial that will include an actual piece of the Twin Towers. It'll be the first such memorial on the Central Coast.

When completed, this community collaboration project will have taken about 8 years says Melissa Mudgett with the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

Mudgett says back In 2007, Captain Matt Callahan was working for the fire department when he noticed other California cities were creating 9/11 memorials with artifacts included in their designs.

"And so he did all the leg work on his own in the beginning and so this was really just a passion of one of our Staff here," said Mudgett.

Then in 2011, the Port Authority granted an I-beam from the towers to be used in the San Luis Obispo project, but it required transportation.

"A rotary member who happened to be a retired fireman himself, drove across country with his grandson to retrieve the beam on the East Coast," said Mudgett.

The beam is nine feet long and weighs about 15 hundred pounds. It will be displayed horizontally, encompassed by a circle holding 403 rods. These rods represent the first responders who died during 9/11.

The city approved the design early this year and installation is scheduled for next year at Fire Station No. 1. 

SEE THE I-BEAM IN PERSON ON 9/11:

  • The City of San Luis Obispo and the American Legion (Post 66) annual 9/11 Remembrance Ceremony from 10-11 a.m. at Laguna Lake Golf Course (11175 Los Osos Valley Road).
  • Thursday night downtown farmers market, Higuera Street at Chorro Street.

For more information you can contact the San Luis Obispo Parks and Recreation Department at (805) 781-7300.