Huntington Beach dedicates 9/11 memorial

After five years of design and 15 years after the terrorist attacks that inspired it, Huntington Beach dedicated its Sept. 11 memorial on Sunday afternoon outside the City Hall council chamber.

The centerpiece of the $200,000 monument consists of two 9 1/2-foot-tall granite pillars that pay tribute to the World Trade Center towers in New York City that fell Sept. 11, 2001, after being struck by hijacked airliners. The memorial features two pieces of steel from the Twin Towers along with a pentagon including the words “We Will Never Forget” and plaques listing donors and describing what happened that day.

The attacks, involving a total of four hijacked jets, killed 2,977 people in New York, Washington, D.C., and near Shanksville, Pa.

Huntington Beach Mayor Jim Katapodis, co-chairman of the city’s 9/11 Memorial Committee, said last week that the words on the memorial are especially important.

“We said we will never forget,” the former police officer said. “That’s important to me that we make sure that people don’t forget what happened on Sept. 11. We have to teach our kids and everybody else about that day.”