New memorial area dedicated at World Trade Center site

John Stewart talks with Alice Greenwald, CEO of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, before the start of a dedication ceremony in New York, Thursday, May 30, 2019. (Photo: Seth Wenig, AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Family members of recovery workers who died after digging through smoldering ruins joined city officials Thursday at a dedication ceremony for a new section of the Sept. 11 memorial at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. They were joined by recovery workers who themselves are ill.

The 9/11 Memorial Glade honors rescue and recovery workers who were sickened or died after responding to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The grassy clearing on the southwest corner of the 8-acre (3-hectare) plaza includes a path flanked with six huge, sloping stone structures made of granite slabs inlaid with steel recovered from the fallen trade center towers.

The larger memorial’s original architects, Michael Arad and Peter Walker, designed the memorial glade. Its massive stone slabs were shaped by two craftsmen in Barre, Vermont.

“Today we are dedicating this memorial glade to all who became sick or died because of causes related to the attacks and to all the men and women who took part in the rescue and recovery effort that ended on this date 17 years ago,” former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the chairman of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, told the hundreds gathered on the plaza for the ceremony.

“We have a duty to care for those who need it and to honor the memory of those who died. The memorial glade helps us to fulfill that duty,” he said.

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