NYC-WTC_000230558

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

NE^yORK TIMES, MONDAy SEPTEMSER 17, 2001

Hauling the Debris, and Darker Burdens By CHARLIE LeDOFF since Wednesday. They found a torso in his load on and buy American flags LO show The crews come silently to work now. The rescue Friday. It . knocked him off center, he said. The their support and unity. They al­ ready had the Stars and Stripes sevm operation at ground zero has become a job. The thought has crossed his mind, that he is little more onto their jacker sleeves They wore ironworkers,aiid truck drivers are under contract. At than a hearse driver. them weeks ago when times were shift change, there is order where before there was “It just really freaked me out," he said of the good. And underneadi the patches of body as he idled at ground zero waiting for his rig to those union truck drivers is stitched mayhem. the motto "Proud to be an Ameri­ For the truckers, it has become a funeral proces­ be loaded. 'T got friends who died in here, you know? can.'' sion of sorts. It wends from the mound of the World Firemen. That could have been my friend. This whole "They hit the World Trade Cen­ ter,” one driver said on his way to Trade Center, still smoking like the wick of an oil thing’s got me beat down.” the dump. "They hit the Pentagon. lamp, and goes through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. As of Friday, 1,500 truckloads,.or 9,000 tons, had Bui they missed America.'' It continues over, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and been moved to the landfill, which was closed perma­ The scene through the windshield ends,on-,the peak of Muldoon Hill at the Fresh Kills nently tfiis year but reopened after the'Tuesday Saturday I was one of chaos. There were thousands of volunteers sitting landfillf’oh .Staten Island, where the bones’ of the morning massacre. . | t around with nothing to do but eat skyscrapers are dumped. The trip is asglow ohei^lO The men who make their career of tearing down donated cookies. There were the crazies who posed as ma­ I miles and at least 10 checkpoints. ; and building up the city estimate it will take about Er . crash-site rines and priests and firemen There There are other things in that load, too. Grisly year to clear the wreckage and lay new roads. Giant 1? J were reporters milling around dis­ things that federal agents in hazard suits are paid to beams from the buildings have punctured the subway (I guised as construction workers. rake through. When they find these things, they sepa- , tunnels, and the tunnels have filled with groundwater, i There were men drinking In bars that had Ihelr windows blown out. rate them and tag them for later identification. At,this “There’s a lot of work here,” one hallow voice There were tens of thousands of pho­ point the truckers don’t linger anymore. They don’t <said over the CB radio. “But there’s a lot we’re never tos taken. Some people stood and smiled and posed. There was toe . want to see it. I getting back." much traffic for the trucks to move Dennis Gartland, 35, has been hauling wreckage The mood among Cie truckers Is a In and out effectively. V surly one. The udrenoUne has given By sundown, somebody with ar ' way to fatigue. Tlraugh there Is Utile efficient mind had taken charge and chance that anyone In the wreckage the streets were clean and the work Is situ alive, the drivers are still was brisk, the trucks hauling debris holding out lor the chance ot a oir- from the south end of Trinity Street, acle. There was an esprit de corps ai "I've heard stories of people livfhg ground zero, a respect for one an­ 11 or 11 days under coUapsed teiw- other and the work they were dome. inga," Mr Gartland said. When There were inquiries about farrtlies ■asked when and where these mlr- and concern for one another's safety. ' acles occurred, Mr. Gartland said he could not remember. Still, he has ”Cet some sleep, pal,” they loJd each heard about miracles and he believes other. They wore the flag on Their . In them. "It’s Ironic, though," he helmets said. "We're taking the whole mess 'Tt‘5 all about the working people to a place called Fresh Kills." . now.” said a national guardsman It's unsettUng to see a grown man standing sentry at the rubble to keep cry, but Bob Vagnler, 55, said those the crazies out. “It’s about truckers weren’t teats welling tn his eyes—11 and tronworkers now,” was the dust. He. like many ot the At dusk, while driving over the trucker drivers, Is a veteran of the Verrazano Bridge, one could see that armed forces. He Is one of those the harbor was nearly empty and hardened men, the type who does not that the Coast Guard was starching cry at his own mother's funeral , each cargo ship thoroughly. "But this — this is ddterent, ' be Over the CB radios, some truck­ said with his hands in his pockets and ers, who had no knowledge oJ the his foot on the running board as he serpentine downtown streets, were in ^looked out onto the carnage. "What B panic "Lost on Rector!” a man about those young Staten Island girls who took the ferry to work? The ones shouted- "Maybe it’s Rector? I can't who wore the pantyhose with the telL The signs are blown off.'' imeakeis? Gone, I guess. It don't "Keep making lefts, Jimmy,” tnalie sense" , came the answer. ■ The cleanup Job is under contract "Frank. Thal's called a circle ” now siJ the drivers are paid alwt Eventually iha dHi/ers did gel 125 an hour. But they would do It for their loads to Muldoon Hill, the free. They did do It for free. In fact. graveyard for the twisted carnage that has become the roost lor 10,000 birds.

Adrenaline gives way to fatigue, and:. trucks begin to feel like hearses.

until late Iasi week. Mid now thereis a gigantic new Job. There la maney. In war The truck driven — at least ,tlK union men — did not have to run ptii

CITY_21MC100_008016514

NYC-WTC_000230558