Ground Zero Cross Carries Souls of 9/11

Nearly 25 years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Rev. Bill Minson still carries a piece of Ground Zero around his neck — a heavy steel cross whose meaning has deepened with every passing year.

Minson began working with the American Red Cross two days after the attacks, serving at family assistance centers for five months before joining the Salvation Army at Ground Zero. One morning, an ironworker approached him with a cross-shaped piece of steel cut from the wreckage.

“He came over and said, ‘This is for you,’” Minson recalled. “I looked at it and I really didn’t have anything to say. I said, ‘Man, thank you. I appreciate this.’”

For a time, Minson carried the steel along with pieces of glass and marble from the World Trade Center, bringing them into schools and allowing students to touch something from a place that no longer existed.

Later, while searching unsuccessfully for a crucifix in California, Minson said he felt God telling him, “You got yours.”

“I looked at this piece of steel I’d been carrying around and started laughing,” he said.

Minson had a jeweler drill a hole in the steel and attach a loop. He has worn it ever since.

“The reason that I wear it is because wherever I go, I carry the souls with me,” Minson said. “They’re never gonna die.”

The cross has accompanied him across the country, including on missions following tragedies in Parkland and Las Vegas, but also during happier moments.

“Wherever I go, the souls go with me,” he said. “That’s what it represents — keeping those souls alive.”

People often remark on the cross’s considerable weight. Minson remembers 9/11 mother Sally Regenhard holding it while they spoke about her firefighter son, Christian, who was killed at the World Trade Center.

“That day it became like a feather to me,” Minson said. “Here’s a mother holding a piece of a remembrance of how her child died. How could I feel any weight? They’re the ones carrying the weight, not me.”