Bloomberg visits Flight 93 site
PITTSBURGH — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited the Flight 93 crash site before stopping in Pittsburgh on Sunday as part of a fundraising tour for a memorial and museum to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Several hundred people gathered near the city's baseball stadium, PNC Park, where Bloomberg and other officials spoke and signed one of two 40-foot-long steel beams that will be used in the construction of the World Trade Center memorial in New York.
"With your help, we will build a memorial that will tell the story to future generations so that our children and grandchildren will know the sacrifice that was made and will realize just how important the freedoms that we have in this country are," he said.
Bloomberg, one of the two largest individual donors to the project with a pledge of $15 million, said the tour already had produced about $1 million in donations "large and small," and the total amount raised had climbed to $325 million.
The campaign, which Bloomberg has led for the past year, has a goal of $350 million. The government has also committed more than $400 million to build the memorial, which will feature pools evoking the footprints of the two towers and list the names of the nearly 3,000 victims.
Pittsburgh was the fourth stop on the tour, which began on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the attacks in Columbia, S.C., where the steel beams were made. One beam has been traveling with the tour and others are being added in some cities, organizers said. Earlier stops included Raleigh, N.C., and Norfolk, Va.
The event was the first attended by the New York mayor, whose plans for the multistate tour have been closely watched because of speculation that he is eyeing a run for president next year. He said Sunday that he has "no interest" in becoming a candidate in the race.
At each stop, people are invited to contribute and sign one of the beams.
"I think the fact that the outpouring of interest is so great, we will probably extend this tour to visit another 10 cities over and above the original 15 we had planned," Bloomberg said.
Newly added stops include St. Louis; Little Rock, Ark.; Memphis, Tenn.; Oklahoma City; Ft. Worth, Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana; Jackson, Miss.; Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta and Tampa, Fla.
The tour will continue to Charleston, W.Va., and later visit Lexington, Ky.; Ft. Wayne, Ind.; Cincinnati; Lansing, Mich.; Aurora, Ill.; Madison, Wis.; and Des Moines, Iowa. It is expected to pass through 25 states by the end of the year.
In Pittsburgh, organizers unveiled a traveling exhibition, with photographs, artifacts and videos that recount the story of the Sept. 11 attacks.
People also lined up to donate and sign one of the beams, which were perched on a trailer and weigh 4 tons each. Many of those attending wore Pittsburgh Steelers jerseys and were headed to the football game at nearby Heinz Field.
"I think it's a good thing to remember what happened on Sept. 11, and just signing that makes you think you have a part of it," said Steve Spinda, a 48-year-old electrician from Kersey.
Earlier Sunday, Bloomberg toured the site of a temporary memorial at the Flight 93 crash site near Shanksville, about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, and presented officials with an American flag that had flown above ground zero.
