NC artist turns steel beams from 9/11 into art

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GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — In the Triad, pieces from the World Trade Center are a permanent part of three cities after one local artist gathered more than 20 tons of steel from a scrap yard in New Jersey and brought it to Greensboro.

“If you want to understand history, touch history,” Jim Gallucci said on the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Gallucci, a nationally renowned sculptor, brought 40,000 pounds of steel from the World Trade Center to the triad.

The remaining steel sits outside the shop with his namesake in Greensboro. The beams are from the 70th floor of one of the towers.

The steel was towed on an 18-wheeler from a New Jersey scrapyard.

“It still had the smell of jet fuel on it … What really gets you is when things fall out. We had a kid’s sneaker fall out of one,” he said.

In an effort to honor the victims, Gallucci created a monument in downtown Greensboro. The bottom is shaped like the Pentagon, and there are 50 pieces of fluttering steel with poems on the bottom from children about the attack.

One Greensboro woman visited the monument to remember the anniversary of 9/11. She read each poem carefully.

“I want to hug it … and cry,” she said.

Gallucci says monuments are about moments like that. He hopes a nonprofit will want the rest of the steel now that Greensboro has its monument, one is coming in Summerfield and another is already up in Reidsville.

Gallucci wants the steel to become part of more monuments.

“We have lots of ideas of what to do with this, but we’ve just run out of money. It’s cost us lots of money,” he said.

The steel that once held up one of the tallest buildings in the world holds a weight far heavier than pounds.

“They say never forget. I will never forget,” the woman said.

Nonprofits interested in the steel can contact the Gallucci shop.

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Cassie Fambro

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