Friday, October 19, 2012

30 Days of Photographs III - Steel



I took a long walk around the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore one day just to be outside in the sunshine. As I rounded the corner of a building, I saw this huge piece of steel on a massive marble base. At first I thought that it was a large abstract art sculpture. When I walked around from the end to the side of the monument, I saw just what it was. This is a large beam that came from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The city has created this monument in dedication to all of the people from Maryland that died in the attacks on 9-11. It stopped me in my tracks as I gazed upon the mangled beams. This picture does not do justice to the memorial or the feelings that it evoked within me.

25 comments:

  1. That's amazing. I hadn't realized there were remote memorials. Cool.

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    1. It really shook me up as I was not expecting it. It was cool and somber at the same time.

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  2. My church has a cross made out of the steel from the World Trade Center...

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    1. That is interesting. I guess with so much wreckage there are lots of different types of memorials.

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  3. Excellent. That is what I thought it was before I read your post. We have a piece at our college museum and I had my students write their essays on it. Just seeing the photo is emotional...I can imagine all that you felt while in its presence. Well done.

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    1. Thanks. I had wanted to write a moving post about the experience but couldn't express it properly. I'm sure your students did a fine job!

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  4. What a terrifying and striking tribute to the victims of that horrible event. Seeing those massive steel beams twisted and warped on the ground like that instantly conveys the destructive power of that tragic day. This is a moving post.

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    1. The photo doesn't give the scale and if I had thought about it, I would have included a person in the shot. It put my own problems in perspective.

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  5. I can't even type a comment because I have too many tears in my eyes.

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    1. Aww, don't cry Meleah. It is a lovely tribute.

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  6. This brings on powerful emotions... I can only imagine how it must be in person!

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    1. Yes. It makes you really consider the weight that you put on your own problems.

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  7. The scope of that event is still hard to grasp at times. The size of those things are a pretty good reminder.

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    1. It was a day that touched everyone in some way even those of us with no connection to those who lost so much. My kids have grown up in the post 9-11 era. So sad to have that be a defining moment in their young lives.

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  8. A beautiful and sad take on the theme, LM. Thank you for showing us this.

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    1. I wish I were an eloquent writer and could express the feelings that it invoked.

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  9. i have some of the wreckage from 9/11 near my job. took photos of it and didn't like it.

    nice find.

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    1. I had never seen any of the wreckage in person. It was very shocking.

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  10. I can't imagine 'stumbling' across this. Finding out what it was so abruptly would have brought me to my knees. So much pain in those steel beams.

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    1. I think if I had found it under different circumstances in my life, I may have been unable to take the pictures.

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  11. I can easily understand what a powerful statement this would make and how moved you must have been.

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    1. Thanks, Stephen. It was mind boggling to say the least.

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  12. That is way cool. Of all the steel to choose from at the Inner Harhor, this is great.

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  13. Oh my word, I did NOT see that coming. Shivers...

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