A beam from the World Trade Center is at the heart of Pitt-Johnstown’s Heroes Memorial

In 2011, 10 years after the 9/11 attacks, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown dedicated the Heroes Memorial to commemorate one of the deadliest incidents of terrorism worldwide. The centerpiece of the monument is a 3,500-pound steel I-beam from the World Trade Center in New York City, one of three sites where airplanes crashed during the attack.

Of the 9,000-plus names on the memorial, more than 3,023 belong to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Pitt-Johnstown campus is 20 miles north of the Flight 93 crash site and 200 miles from the Pentagon, where a third plane crashed. In addition to the steel beam, the site honors more than 46,000 members of the military killed in Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Photography by Alyssa Locke