September 11: Bearing Witness to History Makes Solemn Debut at Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center
by Heather Foster

9/11/04

Pittsburgh, PA—The Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center recently opened September 11: Bearing Witness to History with a reflective and poignant ceremony. Members of the Eureka Fire and Rescue (Tarentum, PA), who arrived at Ground Zero the day after the attacks in New York, assisted with the observances. Approximately 100 additional visitors were on hand to be a part of the event that SITES project director Lawrence Hyman called "respectful" and "restorative."

Understandably, artifacts on display (including objects from inside the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon) elicited intense emotions from viewers, especially from those who had been there and who had witnessed the utter chaos on that fateful day in September. Standing near an exhibition case that contained her dust-covered briefcase, one World Trade Center survivor offered a compelling first-hand account of her experiences as she fled the building.

For SITES team members traveling from Washington, it was particularly moving to witness the local response to the subject matter. The Pennsylvania exhibition really wasn't just about New York, Washington, or the Shanksville, PA, crash site of Flight 93. It was about how regular people, hundreds of miles away were affected by the tragedy.

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