Liberty Park memorial honors Port
Authority members lost on 9/11
Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton leaves flowers at the New World Trade Center Memorial
Garden on Saturday, Sept. 11.
BY HAEVEN GIBBONS
For the past six years, Kathy Liakas has come to this
spot in Liberty Park at least once a month. She sits
adjacent to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
and National Shrine to pray and watch the construction
of the church. A Greek Orthodox herself, Liakas said she
cannot wait to pray inside of the church when the construction
is done.
But this month, while sitting and praying for those who
lost their lives on 9/11 and for peace in the world, she
noticed the new plaque sprouting out of the garden.
On Saturday, Sept. 11, The Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey dedicated a Memorial Garden honoring
the sacrifi ces made by Port Authority fi rst responders and
employees who lost their lives during the 9/11 attacks and
in the 1993 bombing, as well as Port Authority employees
who died as a result of 9/11 rescue and recovery efforts.
Members of the Port Authority Police Department were
the fi rst to respond to the 9/11 attacks. That day, the PAPD
suffered the largest loss by any police department in the
history of U.S. law enforcement.
On the day of the attacks, 84 Port Authority employees
died, including the 37 Port Authority police offi cers and
13 civilian members of the Port Authority’s World Trade
Department, who were recognized as fi rst responders by
the US Department of Justice.
New Memorial Garden
to be an ‘eye opener’
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey continued
to work tirelessly after 9/11 to help rescue people,
identify missing people, bring closure to families and to
PHOTOS COURTESY OF PORT AUTHORITY
rebuild the area.
“When we were doing the rescue and recovery, in
the beginning, the site was void of life,” said Detective
Lieutenant Commander John Ryan, who has been a part
of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police
Department for 42 years. “You didn’t see any birds, you
didn’t see anything there.”
It wasn’t until a spring day in 2002 that some of the
trees on the west street began to bud and birds slowly
returned to the area, Ryan said. Now, the site surrounding
the memorial is vibrant — fl owers bloom and birds fl y
overhead again.
Today, the Port Authority is still helping to rebuild, and
the new Memorial Garden provides family and friends
a space to go to remember those they lost on 9/11 and
those who died years later from diseases and illnesses they
contracted while doing post-9/11 rescue and recovery.
Brian Ahern, who became a Port Authority police offi
cer in February 2001 and is the pipe major of The Port
Authority Police Department Pipes and Drums Band, said
he hopes the memorial not only provides a space of refl ection,
but a place for education and realization.
“Whether it be someone who lost a loved one or just
somebody coming there to visit the Trade Center from
another state or country, one would only hope they’ll stop,
they’ll read the plaque and it will be an eye opener to
realize that even though thousands died on 9/11, over the
past 20 years, thousands more have died from diseases
from doing the rescue and recovery at the World Trade
Center,” Ahern said.
Ahern was a part of helping rescue people in the days
following 9/11.
“Everyone that was down there was using their hands,
shovels and buckets in order to do whatever they needed
to do so that they could possibly bring some closure to
families who lost loved ones,” Ahern said. “And that’s why
you’re seeing so many people, 20 years later, contracting
diseases from working down there and unfortunately passing
away from these diseases as well.”
For the people who were not found, memorials can help
provide some closure.
“It defi nitely does help people cope and remember, and
it’s a very solemn area where people can just meditate and
think about their loved ones that are no longer around,”
Ahern said.
A place to ‘mourn’ and ‘reflect’
The area around the Memorial Garden attracts people
for all sorts of reasons. Some enjoy lunch on the steps
nearby while others conduct work meetings.
Nicole Perry, who works near Trinity Park and is the
daughter of a former NYPD offi cer, enjoyed lunch at the
memorial on Wednesday. She said she was happy to see
a memorial honoring police, and that it was nice to see
memorials still cropping up two decades later.
Perry said the whole area for the memorial is “pristine”
and “quiet,” making it a good place to “mourn” and
“refl ect.”
Rachel Fluker, who also sat near the memorial on
Wednesday, said she was working near the World Trade
Center on the day of the attacks. She remembers taking a
pair of sneakers from a man who was handing them out
to women who were wearing heels as people evacuated
the area. She said memorials like this do help families
fi nd closure, especially for the families who never found
those they lost.
Lieutenant Commander stressed the importance of
memorials like the one at Trinity Park, because they serve
as a reminder of the events through the course of history
that have had a signifi cant impact — while also signifying
how the community responded.
“It’s important to have these points of reference to serve
as a reminder and also to generate discussion about the
names and who the people were that are listed on there,”
Ryan said.
“The Port Authority Police Department has a saying:
‘It’s always remember, never forget,” he said. “We sort of
all took a vow to do that, and all these memorials help us
be able to achieve that.”
14 September 23, 2021 Schneps Media