“Taking apart the twisted steel of the World Trade Center,” he recalled shaking his head sadly, “was like doing an autopsy on your child.” At 6 p.m., on September 11, 2001, Wright began that heartrending operation.
The burly veteran worked the blowtorch and helped direct a crane near the South Tower during those first shell-shocked hours when firemen still clung to hope for miraculous rescues. Only after the beams were moved could the digging begin in earnest. “I had to take my mask off, I couldn’t breath with it on, and I couldn’t work,” he said. “But who was I to worry about carcinogens when there were victims? A Hollywood producer could not evoke the feelings you had. I worked 20-hour days, sleeping on benches. Thank God for those little old ladies with the sandwiches.”
Today, thousands of union workers like Wright returned to the site to remember their roles and to pay homage to those who died. They didn’t receive the attention paid to firefighters who charged up the stairs and never came down, or cops who kept the peace in those first, scary days–that was clear at Wednesday’s ceremony. Scores of union workers brandishing their union cards at checkpoints faced off with overwhelmed policemen. Most workers were turned away. All the while, groups of immaculately dressed firefighters solemnly strolled past and took their places near the podium as the recognized heroes of the day.
Still, that did little to dent union pride. All told, some 61 members of the building trades died on September 11–many in the service of others. Charlie Hounsell of Local 1 Elevator Contractors was towing weights across the lobby at a building in nearby Battery Park City when the first plane hit nearby and “all hell broke loose.” “People just started running around, nobody knew what to do,” he says. Nobody, except colleague Charlie Costello–who ran into the towers and never came out again.
“The unions have always been patriotic, but 9-11 brought the trades close together,” says Hounsell. Just as the firemen and policemen stood solemn sentry in the days after the attack, waiting for the remains of their comrades, countless union members worked for weeks to dig out their own. “We lost 17–they were doing telephone and data work in the buildings that day,” recalls Frank Jablon of Local Union 3, the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “We got here that first Saturday, and we had to con our way in. We passed buckets of debris, evidence, stuff for the medical examiner–things you tried not to look at. I had to have my boots resoled because the steel was so hot, it melted them off.”
For some, there is a tinge of bitterness at the lack of recognition for their efforts. But that’s probably temporary. Wright turned around to reveal letters carefully stitched into the back of his union T shirt, above a picture of the Twin Towers. STEELWORKERS, it said, WE BUILT THEM. WE WILL REBUILD THEM. That, he says, you can count on.
