Metro

Navy ship made of WTC steel arrives in NYC; 9/11 families salute it

The World Trade Center sailed into the city this morning.

The USS New York, which has a bow built from 7.5 tons of Twin Towers steel, stopped near Ground Zero as a detail on board fired off a 21-gun salute.

Families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks standing on the north cove then saluted the Navy’s newest warship as it continued up the Hudson.

After the 21-gun salute, petty officers Mike Sullivan and Paul Bershers,who were on watch on the bow, started singing Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.”

After the Ground Zero stop, the ship escorted by about two dozen tugboats and other vessels headed up the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge. After a U-turn there, it was to head south to Pier 88. An official commissioning ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.

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“It’s a transformation … from something really twisted and ugly, said Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother, Sean, on 9/11. “I’m proud that our military is using that steel.”

Tallon said her brother, who was also was a Marine, also would have been proud.

JoAnn Atlas, of Howells, who lost her husband, fire Lt. Gregg Atlas, draped a flag-themed banner along the fence. The names of emergency workers who died were written on the red stripes.

Of the 361 sailors serving aboard the ship, around 13 percent are from New York state, which is higher normally be the case, according to the Navy.

E3 seaman Ian Graves, of Frederick, Oklahoma, said, “I’ve never seen anything this large. The biggest thing I’m excited about in New York is riding the subway. It’s gonna be fun as hell.”

The New York will remain in the city through Veteran’s Day and then head to Norfolk, Va., for about a year of crew training and exercises, officials said.

Designed for counter-terrorism operations, the 684-feet-long amphibious landing dock platform can deliver an entire battalion of 800 Marines anywhere on the planet.

Its flight deck can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Tours will be given to the public this week in the lead up to Saturday’s commissioning ceremony.

With Post Wire Services