President Donald Trump marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks with a ceremony at the Ellipse outside the White House, promising that the country would never forget the nearly 3,000 people killed that day.
The event was organized by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and centered on a 21-foot steel beam weighing nearly 17,000 pounds, recovered from the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The beam spent months crossing the country as part of the Steel Across America tour.
"This battered piece of steel here today on the Ellipse is a reminder that America is blessed with a strength no fire can consume, no evil can conquer and no terror can destroy," Trump said. He called the attacks one of the few moments in history that divide time into what came before and after.
Medal of Freedom for the man in the red bandanna
Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Welles Crowther, a young equities trader who helped several people reach safety in the South Tower and became known as the man in the red bandanna. Crowther, also a volunteer firefighter, died when the tower fell. His mother Alison and sister Paige accepted the award, the nation's highest civilian honor.
The president also paid tribute to Jeffrey Palazzo, a New York City firefighter and Coast Guard reservist who responded from Staten Island's Rescue Squad 5 and died in the attacks. The Coast Guard will commission a fast-response cutter in his name in New York this weekend.
A week of commemorations
Trump recalled being near the site after the attacks and hearing the structure then known as the U.S. Steel Building creaking. He said two firefighters lifted him under the arms and ran with him. The crowd included Cabinet officials and members of Congress, among them Republican Reps. Mike Lawler of New York and Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, whose district sits near Shanksville, where Flight 93 crashed.
Trump praised Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who led Cantor Fitzgerald when the firm lost more than 650 employees, including his brother Gary. The steel beam will make its way through New York on Friday in a procession retracing the steps of fallen firefighter Stephen Siller, and Trump is set to attend a ceremony at the Pentagon.