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SQ-41 on a pile-side column
The column that held
The column stood in the South Tower, close to the road that led down into the pile, and it never moved from where it was placed when the towers fell. Crews uncovered a piece of it and tried to move it, and it would not budge. They kept uncovering more of it, and it was the last column removed from the site.
The axe mark
Nobody needed a ladder to write the mark, because the debris was piled that high. The axe was a sign that other gear, and firefighters, might be close by.
Names and numbers
People signed the column. They wrote the names of the people they were looking for and had lost, whether they found them or not. Numbers were stenciled on it for the people killed from the FDNY, the Port Authority Police Department, the NYPD, and the civilians. From very early on, it worked as a memorial to 9/11.
Why do rescuers mark what they find in rubble?
Search teams mark debris so that later crews know what has been checked and what lies nearby. The standard American system for urban search and rescue uses a large painted X at an entrance, with each quadrant recording details such as the team, the time, hazards, and the number of victims inside. An item left in place can serve the same purpose on a pile, telling the next shift that something was found there. The system was revised after Hurricane Katrina to record multiple searches of the same structure.
Why is a steel column so hard to move?
Skyscraper columns are bolted to base plates anchored in the foundation, so the bottom end stays fixed even when everything above it fails. Each section of a column is a heavy steel member weighing many tons, stacked and spliced floor by floor. A column left standing in a pile of compacted debris is held at the base and wedged in at the sides. Crews take that kind of steel apart with cranes and cutting torches.
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