Indeed, it has.
Sept. 11, 2001, was/is a day that will live in infamy for people of the United States, especially those in New York City's lower Manhattan; Washington, D.C.; and rural southwest Pennsylvania.
Apologies to those who feel that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's iconic term "infamy" should be reserved for Pearl Harbor. But alas, 9/11 cost the country about 500 more lives (2,900+ vs. 2,400+) than the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese surprise bombing of Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. into World War II.
This morning, I read stories in the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer commemorating the destruction of the World Trade Center towers, the fiery devastation at the Pentagon, and the brave passengers of United Airlines flight 93 who on 9/11 helped bring down their hijacked plane near Shanksville, Pa., before it could accomplish its objective to do further damage in the nation's capital.
And I was reminded of the Service Memorial I photographed in downtown Apex, N.C., in 2018 and 2019, from which come the photos in this post. Apex is a southwest suburb of Raleigh.
The memorial at the corner of Salem and Saunders streets was built in 2013 and pays tribute to "those who serve to provide safety and protect our freedoms, both at home and abroad."
Prior to erecting the memorial, Apex had received a 6-inch cube of a metal beam recovered from the rubble of the World Trade Center's South Tower. The cube sits atop the 5-foot granite memorial (see photo below), which honors first responders and service members, including the people who responded to the Sept. 11 attacks. The photo below is a crop of the second photo below the narrative of this post.
The memorial stands at the center of converging brick paths, and each brick is inscribed in memory of public safety workers or veterans, according to today's News & Observer article.
The Apex landmark is one of several memorials in North Carolina that are home to remnants of the World Trade Center. Others are in Pittsboro, Greensboro and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.
All but the last three photos in this post were taken in my September 2018 shoot in Apex; the remainder were taken on a visit in July 2019.
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