9/11 Steel Beam Viewing Set For This Weekend

Land O' Lakes residents looking for something to do this weekend need only make a short drive to take in a piece of history.

A steel beam from one of the two towers of the World Trade Center will be on display this weekend at shopping malls in Brandon and Citrus Park.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office applied for a beam years ago and only just received the beam from the Port Authority of New York for permanent public display, which is scheduled for Heroes Plaza in Tampa.

The sheriff’s office is the first law enforcement agency in Florida to receive a beam, according to sheriff’s spokesperson Cristal Bermudez Nunez.

Sheriff’s officials unveiled the beam May 5 for members of the press, to aid in their reports of the beam’s display at Westfield Citrus Park on May 7 and Westfield Brandon on May 8. The time for both viewings is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Brandon Patch report on the press preview talks about the “surreal” timing, given the death this week of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as reflected upon by Nunez.

Her father, Jorge Bermudez, who works in the sheriff’s office in facilities, talks about his role in building a pedestal for the beam’s display. He said the beam reminds him of his childhood in Cuba, and the incarceration of his father in a concentration camp “for nothing more than trying to bring his family to freedom.”

Westfield Citrus Park is located at 8021 Citrus Park Town Center in Citrus Park.

Westfield Brandon is at 459 Brandon Town Center in Brandon.