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Sept. 11 memorial U.S. tour begins in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, South Carolina — A traveling exhibit featuring a 4-ton (3.6-metric ton) steel beam that will be part of a Sept. 11 memorial in New York’s ground zero kicked off a national tour Monday in South Carolina, the state where it was made.

City and state officials signed the 37-foot (11.3-meter) beam and victims’ family members wrote messages of remembrance on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“People say that, after six years, it’s time to move on. It’s time to get back to normal. Well, there is no normal anymore,” said Jason Viglione, 28.

He joined the Air Force after his uncle, a veteran New York City firefighter, died at the World Trade Center.

“I go on with my life. I have friends, relationships. I try to prepare for my future. But it’s not the normal that I was on Sept. 10, 2001,” said Viglione, who is based at Shaw Air Force Base about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Columbia.

Workers who responded to the disaster and other loved ones of victims were also on hand to view the exhibit, which includes photos and a minute-by-minute timeline of the disaster to accompany the beam.

The beam, made by Owen Steel Co. in Columbia, will be used in the construction of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the site of the World Trade Center.

More than $300 million (euro217.5 million) has been raised privately and more than $250 million (euro181.23 million) is committed by the federal government to build the 8-acre (3.-hectare) memorial. It will set two waterfall-filled pools just above the twin towers’ footprints, surrounded by a glade of oak and sweetgum trees. Visitors will descend underground to a Sept. 11 museum and be able to view the waterfalls from below.

Other stops for the exhibition include Cincinnati, Des Moines, Iowa, Madison, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne, Indiana.