Many people will never forget the image of twisted piles of steel following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York. In the months following the Sept. 11 attacks, several of those steel beams were sent to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland and Boulder, Colorado for testing to better understand why the towers came down.
Nineteen years ago, not long before the first anniversary of 9/11 in 2002, KUNC's Brian Larson visited NIST's Boulder facility to hear from the engineers who were tasked with testing the steel. NIST would go on to publish final reports relating to the collapse in 2005 and in 2008.
On Friday, a permanent installation made of steel from the World Trade Center will be unveiled at Denver International Airport to honor the thousands of lives lost during the September 11, 2001 attacks. The dedication will take place at Fire House 35 starting at 11 a.m.
