Stephen Siller Jr. was just nine months old when nearly 3,000 victims were killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Yet the event has shaped his life and served as a driving force “to keep the memory of sacrifice alive for all generations,” he says.
Siller’s father, Stephen Siller Sr., was a New York City firefighter who was killed at the World Trade Center. In honor of the elder Siller, his family founded the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
The nonprofit supports family members of fallen first responders and veterans through programs that provide mortgage-free homes for families, build specially adapted smart homes for severely injured veterans and first responders, address veteran homelessness, and keep the memory of 9/11 alive.
Twenty-five years after the attacks, the younger generations largely know about them through classroom lessons, documentaries, and social media posts.
Ahead of the 25th anniversary, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation launched the “Steel Across America” tour to bring a piece of Ground Zero to communities nationwide.
Siller Jr. and foundation team members are transporting a 16,900-pound, 21-foot-plus steel beam recovered from the south tower on a flat bed truck.
The journey, which started in May, will culminate at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 after covering 10,500 miles, through 35 cities in 21 states. The south tower beam has made stops at national monuments, museums, and major league baseball stadiums.
“We’re sharing stories of heroes, men like my father. These stories are going to inspire the next generation,” Siller Jr. told The Epoch Times.
The tour has made stops at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where President George W. Bush was alerted of the attacks while reading to students.
At the tour’s first stop, in lower Manhattan, Siller Jr. provided one New York City firefighter with an emotional reunion, of sorts.
The firefighter’s entire unit was killed on 9/11.
“He was off duty that day. Everybody else in this house lost their lives,” Siller Jr. said.
When the firefighter saw the steel beam, Siller Jr. said, “he came to that steel, walked up to it, and started to break down—he was hugging it and crying.”
“His friends are a part of that steel. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. [He was] hugging the steel like he was hugging his friends,” Siller Jr. added.
In Sarasota, Florida, former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card attended the tour stop at the school where he notified Bush that the World Trade Center had been struck. The teacher who was in the classroom that day also attended.
“Andy came down and re-met with the teacher for the first time since Sept. 11. It was a heck of a reunion,” Siller said.
On the tour’s last stop, at Ground Zero, Siller Jr. and his family will retrace the heroic last steps of his father.
‘He Lost His Life While Saving Others’
In 2001, Siller Sr. was a 34-year-old New York City Fire Department (FDNY) firefighter who served with Squad 1 in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn.
On Sept. 11, after finishing an overnight shift, he was on his way to play golf with his brothers when he heard a call on his scanner describing how the World Trade Center had been hit.
“He turned his car around and went to his firehouse. When he got there, he learned that his unit had already responded. So he grabbed his gear, threw it in his truck, and started to drive to the World Trade Center,” Siller Jr. said.
Siller Sr. called his wife, Sally, and asked her to let his brothers know he would meet them later.
He was stopped outside the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. Entry into Manhattan was blocked.
“You could not get in unless you were in an emergency vehicle, so he parked his car outside the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel,” Siller Jr. said.
Siller Sr. ran two miles through the tunnel to the south tower, hauling 60 pounds of gear. He was never found amid the 1.8 million tons of steel and concrete rubble, leaving behind Sally and five young children—three daughters and two sons.
“He lost his life while saving others, like so many other first responders,” Siller Jr. said.
Hundreds of Memorials
Across the country, pieces of twisted steel that were once part of the twin towers that defined the New York City skyline have been embedded into big cities and small towns alike.
The beams were salvaged from the rubble, cataloged, and shared with communities across the United States and beyond. They now stand as centerpieces in hundreds of memorials.
The World Trade Center was made of around 200,000 tons of structural steel. Some of the steel was recycled, and a small amount was studied. Select pieces were preserved by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and stored for years in Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
As the 10-year anniversary of the attacks approached, the Port Authority established a distribution program for the steel that allowed fire departments, police agencies, municipalities, veterans’ groups, and other organizations to apply for beams or fragments to feature in public memorials.
Through the program, pieces were sent to sites in all 50 states and several foreign countries.
The “Last Column,” a 36-foot section from the south tower, became a centerpiece of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in Manhattan.
The “World Trade Center Cross,” a cross-shaped section of steel found in the rubble formed by two intersecting steel beams, also resides in the museum.
In Beverly Hills, California, a nearly one-ton beam, bent almost in half and standing about 18 feet tall, forms the heart of a memorial garden with materials linked to the twin towers, the Pentagon, and Shanksville.
In Pittsboro, North Carolina, a 19-foot, 12,000-pound beam from the north tower leans toward New York and still bears original construction markings.
A fire station park in Fort Collins, Colorado, showcases a 3,000-pound section surrounded by 343 pavers.
The Wellington Patriot Memorial in Florida features a three-column exterior section from floors near the impact zone.
The memorials provide a tangible connection to the lives lost and the heroism of first responders on Sept. 11, Siller Jr. said.
On Aug. 22, the “Steel Across America” tour stopped at the Cincinnati Fire Museum for its 32nd event.
Joe LaPointe, a retired FDNY lieutenant and Tunnel to Towers Foundation board member, hosted the ceremony.
“There is something uniquely powerful about bringing this steel to a fire museum,” LaPointe said. “This beam is not just a piece of history. It is a promise to every firefighter, first responder, and family who has given everything in the line of duty, that their sacrifice will never, ever be forgotten.”
‘Let Us Do Good’
Siller Sr. was raised by his older siblings after losing both of his parents by the age of 10.
Just a few months after his death, his wife and six siblings created the Tunnel to Towers Foundation in his memory.
His brother Frank Siller now chairs the foundation. Frank’s new memoir, “Let Us Do Good,” explores how losing both parents at a young age shaped his brother’s life before his actions on Sept. 11, 2001, transformed him into a national symbol of courage.
In the book, Frank Siller tells how he decided to walk 537 miles from Washington to New York City in what he called the “Never Forget Walk,” in 2021.
He started his journey at the Pentagon, where a hijacked American Airlines jet hit at 9:37 a.m. on that day in 2001. He stopped in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers overpowered terrorists who were believed to be targeting the White House or U.S. Capitol. He ended his walk where the World Trade Center once stood, on the 20th anniversary of the attacks.
Siller Jr., like many children who lost a parent on 9/11, grew up piecing together his father’s life from the memories and stories of friends, family members, and fellow firefighters.
He grew up attending the foundation’s memorial run, an event that was even more beloved in his family than traditional holiday gatherings, he said.
As time passed and Siller Jr. grew into a young adult, he said, he recognized the importance of his role in helping to preserve his father’s legacy.
Now 25, Siller lives on Staten Island and works full time for the foundation.
“My dad was only 34 when he died. He missed out on so much,” Siller Jr. said. “It’s our mission to carry who he was—who everyone was who lost their lives on that day—keep their memories alive.
“The steel holds the gravity of what happened. It once held floors and walls of the buildings. Now it holds the stories of the sacrifices that were made.”
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