CLEAR LAKE – It looked a little more like a motorcycle rally around 5:30 p.m. in Clear Lake as nearly 200 motorcycles lead the Clear Lake Fire Department through town to deliver the I-beam from the World Trade Center, picked up this week in New York.
There were also fire engines from cities that the steel beam traveled through. The 10’ x 26” I-beam weighs in at roughly 1000 pounds and will take a temporary home inside the fire museum in Clear Lake. The official home will be in front of the new fire station.
The Fire department would like to make the monument something that can be walked up to and touched. They believe that the whole experience is more than just visual, but more a physical one.
Clear Lake is lucky to be one of the selected departments to receive a piece of the twin towers. Roughly 80% of the 1027 pieces collected will stay in the Northeast part of the United States. There is a smaller piece that will be on display in Clive. Both pieces were wrapped in the American flag, which will be hung inside the new fire station once construction is complete.
BELOW: A long line of mortorcycles rumbles up Highway 122 east of Carolina Avenue in Mason City about 5 p.m. Thursday, leading a parade of emergency vehicles with their sirens blaring. The motorcade led members of the Clear Lake Fire Department who were returning from New York City with an I-beam from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. It will be part of a memorial sculpture in front of the new Clear Lake Fire Department. (Photo by Joe Buttweiler)
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(Video by Matt Shanks)
