nothin New Haven Independent | 9/11 Remembered in Branford, East Haven

9/11 Remembered in Branford, East Haven

Sally E. Bahner Photo

The 15th anniversary of the attacks that brought down the Twin Towers in New York City was commemorated by firefighters, police officers, dignitaries, and citizens at Fire Headquarters in Branford and at the Shoreline Trolley Museum.

Marcia Chambers Photo

In the morning, a remembrance ceremony was held at Fire Headquarters where two separate moments of silence were held, the first at 8:46 a.m. when Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center between the 93rd and 99th floors and the second one at 9:03 a.m. when Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors. Fire Chief Tom Mahoney noted the times.

About 200 people, including police and firefighters from the town’s two departments gathered in the Fire department’s garage, where the ceremony was moved because of possible rain. Flags were lowered and raised and Police Chief Kevin Halloran led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance.

More Than Just a Jacket

Marcia Chambers Photo

The Rev. Bill Keane, the police department’s chaplain, and the senior minister of the First Baptist Church of Branford, knows ground zero well. He spent nine months there following the September attacks. He brought with him the denim jacket he wore at ground zero, keeping it at his side. The jacket seemed to bear the dust of those days. The terror attack on the World Trade Center killed 3,356 people in the Towers, including 343 firefighters and 60 police and port authority officers. 

He reminded people that 99 percent of those below the floors where the planes struck the World Trade Center got out. Because of people like you,” he said to the police and firemen in uniform in the audience, they got out. Because of people like you who know and live by the truth that all lives matter. We gather today to make sure that the behavior of 19 seriously depraved individuals will be completely obliterated by the respect and admiration given to the average Joes and Janes who, in a moment’s notice and without warning” do their jobs as first responders.

Lindsay Morehouse Remembered

First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove brought the audience back to that day of horror, reminding everyone of the life Lindsay Morehouse, who with her family spent summers in Pine Orchard. 

Lindsay was a NCAA-acclaimed tennis player who was graduated from Williams College in 2,000. She would got a job as an analyst for Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment-banking firm then located on the 88th and 89th floors of the South Tower. She was one of 67 employees killed at the firm’s offices that day. She was 24.

Cosgrove described the kind of young woman she was, saying she was asked to take part in a charity organization two days before she was killed. I work 55 hours a week but I will make the time,” she told the group. Cosgrove was touched by her spirit and dedication. She worked 55 hours a week and she will make the time. We must not forget. She was making time to help others.” Lindsay’s mother and stepfather, Kathy and Dale Maycen, attended the event. 

Marcia Chambers Photo

Fire Chief Mahoney presided over the 45-minute ceremony, which included flute serenades by the Stony Creek Fife and Drum Corps. They played their final tune on flutes as the ceremony ended and they drifted out the door to the trees ahead.

Joseph E. Higgins, Jr., retired special assistant New York fire commissioner, recalled hearing May Day, May Day, we have a plane into the tower,” that day. He named his friends and colleagues who went out that day and never came back.” He also thanked Trista Milici, Cosgrove’s executive assistant, for weaving the morning ceremony together.

Marcia Chambers Photo

He had a message for the Branford High School Music Makers, who sang God Bless America.” He told them, If you see something, say something. That’s the way we are going to stay alive.” Earlier in the ceremony, Ava Cosgrove, the first selectman’s young daughter, sang the National Anthem with great spirit and heart.

Firefighter and paramedic Amanda Mark recited the Fireman’s Prayer before the bells tolled. From the silence eventually came hard applause; tears were visible on many faces.

PATH Car Dedicated at Trolley Museum

Sally E. Bahner Photo

A year ago PATH car 745 was welcomed to its new home at the Shoreline Trolley Museum. It had been a long journey from the wreckage of the World Trade Center to the bucolic shoreline setting.

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PATH car 745, a 1972 Class PA car, was one of seven cars that had left Hoboken, N.J., and arrived at the station in the sub-basement at the World Trade Center as the attacks were underway. The train was abandoned when the station was evacuated and buried under the rubble of the Twin Towers.

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Now it’s ensconced in its new location and ready for viewing. Local firefighters (including one from New York) and police officers were lined up in front of the barn as trolleys brought 300 to 400 visitors for the dedication Sunday at noon.

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The Rev. Andrew Osmun (pictured),of Christ & the Epiphany Church in East Haven, described the car’s new home as hallowed and made sacred… these visitors are visiting hallowed ground.” Like the Rev. Bill Keane of Branford, he worked at the World Trade Center site one day a week for six months and conducted services as human remains were found.

Jeannine McGuire was the driver of that car. She had been invited to the ribbon cutting, but declined due to family obligations. In a note read at the event she described the car as a great find for the museum.” She will also be donating her operator handles.

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East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo said the car was a great asset,” adding, We must hold our elected officials accountable for the safety of our country.”

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First Selectman Cosgrove, who was at the Branford memorial earlier in the day, acknowledged selectman Joe Higgins’s role in New York that day. Our responsibility is for the next generation… may we never forget.”

Former East Haven Fire Chief and current museum president Wayne Sandford noted that while more than 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, the total has increased due to first responders’ exposure to carcinogens at ground zero, and that number will grow.

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U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said the car was better than it was” and described it as a metaphor for us. We have a greater appreciation for first responders,” he said. State Sen. Len Fasano and state Rep. James Albis of East Haven were also present.

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Bill Wall, past president of the Shoreline Trolley Museum, conducted the negotiations for obtaining the car, which was stored in a hangar at JFK airport after being lifted from the rubble. It had been protected by a cast iron tunnel. Deemed too large for the 9/11 memorial in New York, it found a home at the Shoreline Trolley Museum, where it was welcomed in a procession led by bagpipes a year ago.

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Benjamin Engle (pictured) was in sixth grade when the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001. A resident of Rye Brook, N.Y., he went on to work for PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) and hears stories daily from colleagues who remember the attacks and the one in 1993.

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Two other PATH employees, Alan Zelazo, a retired engineer, and Jamie Andujer, a current engineer, were also there telling their stories.

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To allay children’s fears about the attack, Marie Betts Bartlett wrote a book, Poppy’s Purpose,” about the PATH car and its new home at the Shoreline Trolley Museum and signed copies.

Volunteers spent the last year refurbishing the car, which included replacing some of the windows, strap hangers, and restoring posters. Some dents and scrapes were acquired as it was lifted out, and water in the tunnel rusted out its engine.

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Murphy said it was in better condition than when it was in service.

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Joey Markowski, the museum’s youngest conductor, cut the ribbon, and the public streamed in to view the Shoreline Trolley Museum’s latest addition.

Many people carried flowers and left them behind on a set of seats in remembrance of a day we will never forget. (See top photo.)

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