9/11 Steel Beam From World Trade Center Coming to Brandon Mall

When Jorge Bermudez touches the steel beam from one of the two towers of the World Trade Center, donated to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office by the Port Authority of New York, his thoughts drift back to his life as a child.

“I came from a communist country. I came from Cuba,” he said. “My father was put in a concentration camp when I was nine years old. I didn’t get to see him until I was 14 years old. He [Fidel Castro] put my father in a concentration camp for nothing more than trying to bring his family to freedom.”

Today, Bermudez, who for decades has worked with the sheriff’s office in facilities and maintenance, is busy at work with timber, building a pedestal on which “Steal Beam No. H-0076” will stand on display for the public this weekend at Westfield shopping malls in Brandon (May 8) and Citrus Park (May 7). The viewings are set for 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 

“When I see this beam it brings me back because there’s people out there still trying to take my freedom away,” Bermudez said. “It really does.”

That one of those people, Osama bin Laden, is now dead brings relief — but not wild joy — to Bermudez.

“My beliefs don’t allow me to be happy about anybody getting killed,” he said. “I’m not happy anybody died, but he got what he deserved.”

After its display at the two malls, the beam is expected to be put on permanent display at Heroes Plaza in Tampa, a park commemorating veterans, firefighters and law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The downtown park, by the St. Pete Times Forum, features pedestals inscribed with the names of fallen first responders.

“It’s insane the timing,” said Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokesperson Cristal Bermudez Nunez, who is Jorge Bermudez’ daughter.

The sheriff’s office had submitted its application for the beam years ago, she said, and its first public display in the area turns out to be just days after the announcement of bin Laden’s death at the hands of Navy SEALs.

“We had the beam in our garage, covered up, getting  plans ready for what we were going to do with it,” said J.D. Callaway, director of communication for the sheriff’s office. “And then within a couple of days Osama bin Laden was taken out."

"It has been kind of surreal in our office,” Nunez said. “We’ve been waiting so long for the beam to come here, and what are the odds we get it two days before the announcement?”

Even better, she said, will be the public’s chance to view the beam itself.  

“We want people to come see it, touch it, feel it, photograph it, at no charge,” Bermudez Nunez said. “We’re not benefiting from this at all. It’s a way for people to see the beam before it goes to its final location.”

The sheriff’s office decided to show the beam to member of the press to support their coverage of the Westfield mall viewings. It was unveiled May 5, at the sheriff’s Greater Brandon maintenance building on 78th Street in Tampa.

“If you don’t get goosebumps over something like this then I think you’re un-American,” said Callaway, in recounting his thoughts after viewing and touching the beam for the first time himself.

Most important is what the beam — and many others like it on display throughout the country — has come to signify, Bermudez Nunez said.

“It’s a reminder of the tragedy of 9/11. But the American spirit, like the steel beam, endures.”