A massive steel cross strapped to a pickup truck moved through the streets of Lower Manhattan on Friday, part of a journey that began in California and will end in front of St. Peter’s church, replacing the steel girder cross made from rubble of the World Trade Center site.
That cross, made from beams that survived the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has been in front of St. Peter’s since 2006. It will soon move to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
The new cross, a modernistic sculpture standing 14 feet, is the work of New Jersey native and artist Jon Krawczyk. The cross was created in Malibu, Calif., and has been driven across 18 states to take up its new perch in Manhattan.
This 9/11 tribute cross has also been carried to the site of the terrorist attacks in Shanksville, Penn., and the Pentagon.
“Everywhere we went in little towns we never heard of, people had so much compassion for New Yorkers, they told us stories of people they had lost, and even if they hadn't they cried,” said Krawczyk.
A hole in the tribute cross will be filled with a piece of wreckage from the twin towers.
“When we started this trip we had no idea -- it turned into so much more than we expected, even than what we set out to do,” said author Kevin Smith.
The commission came to Krawczyk after a patron of the Archdiocese agreed to fund a cross in New York.
