"If the Beam Could Talk" documents the history of Tiffin Police and Fire All Patriots Memorial, shares how Tiffin citizens were impacted by the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and memorializes the two Tiffin police officers killed in the line of duty.
About the memorial
Citizens of Tiffin, Ohio, though geographically distant from New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were not immune to the heartbreak the rest of the country and world experienced September 11, 2001. The process to create Tiffin Police and Fire All Patriots Memorial started in 2011, the 10-year anniversary year of the attacks. The beam was introduced to Tiffin residents during the 10-year anniversary ceremony that year, and the committee was formed shortly after. It spent the following six months or so planning the memorial and raising a great deal of funds to pay for the privately funded project. Groundbreaking occurred on Memorial Day 2012, and construction continued throughout the summer. The site was dedicated September 9, 2012.
The memorial, which incorporates a beam from the World Trade Center and is located at Water and Washington streets near downtown Tiffin, was dedicated September 9, 2011, and incorporates all three sites: a pentagon-shaped base for the beam, to represent the U.S. Pentagon; a mound with a 40-inch post, to represent the 40 crew and passengers who died in Shanksville and the mound created by the plane piercing the ground; and the beam itself, which represents the World Trade Center. The beam sits at a 9.11-degree angle on the base as a reminder of the date. Etched on the granite pentagon base is “Never Forget” and the names of the two Tiffin Police Department officers killed in the line of duty.