At 10:29 a.m. a week from Thursday, the final debris will be removed from ground zero in a solemn ceremony. What had been the site of the World Trade Center at last will be empty of the aftermath of its destruction–261 days later, to the minute.
This day, this moment, was always inevitable, of course, though it has arrived sooner than anyone thought possible. The excavation of the 15-block site is ending three months ahead of schedule. Since Sept. 11, some 1.8 million tons of debris have been removed from the site in a round-the-clock operation.
For a brief period, the land will lie empty, an Elysian field for those who died in the terrorist attacks that terrible day. That won’t be its ultimate fate, nor should it be.
The future of this site is still unfocused, the subject of great debate and controversy. It is hallowed ground. It is commercial real estate. It is an aching, empty hole in lower Manhattan. Reconciling all of those conflicting realities and needs still lies ahead. But the rebirth of this ground, even as memorial, could not begin until this day arrived.
The May 30 ceremony will be emotional and mournful. To symbolize all those who disappeared without a trace that day, an empty stretcher draped in an American flag will be carried up the ramp. To symbolize the 110-story towers, the stretcher will be followed up the ramp by the last remaining piece of WTC steel, an I-beam that has stood sentinel.
This ceremony will be painful for families of the victims, especially those whose loved ones haven’t been–and never will be–found.
As long as they were still digging through the ruins of the twin towers, there was hope. For all these days and nights, there was hope.
When the last load rumbles up out of the subterranean levels of the trade center, hope will be extinguished.
About 2,800 people died there Sept. 11; just 1,000 have been identified. The experts will continue to sort debris elsewhere and analyze DNA from remains. But the process inexorably is on a downward trajectory.
Years from now, there will be trees and buildings–even skyscrapers perhaps–and pulsing life at this place. The grief will have faded. Grief does with time. But Americans still will be making a pilgrimage there to remember that day and that moment and honor all those who died at ground zero. They will never forget.
