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CNN Live Sunday

Port Authority Officer Pays Tribute to Twin Towers

Aired December 30, 2001 - 18:26   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The first of four viewing platforms opened today at the wreckage of the World Trade Center. It's providing the public with a closer look at the devastation at ground zero. Everyone, though, doesn't think it's a great idea. Here's CNN's Brian Palmer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Over the past four months, the landscape of that now legendary patch of earth in lower Manhattan has changed dramatically -- from an apocalyptic sight of charred, scarred and shattered buildings to an almost level plain of rubble and dust. Now with a viewing platform at its edge for the public.

PATRICK VERSAGE, PORT AUTHORITY: There is no structure anymore. There is no Tower one or two. The Vista Hotel. Our police building in 5, the commodities exchange in Building 4. U.S. Customs building in Building 6, or across the street there, Building 7. And part of Battery Park, you know, the World Financial Center, 1, 2 and 3, you know, is gone.

PALMER: Patrick Versage, a member of the Port Authority police department emergency services unit, has been there almost every day. First as a rescuer, then as a searcher.

VERSAGE: In the beginning when there was some structures, we were doing void searches.

PALMER: Now as a sort of sentinel, or perhaps a witness.

VERSAGE: I have seen two beautiful pieces of architecture basically come down to -- down to earth, down six levels. Basically, everything is just now concrete dust and steel. And day in and day out, we are coming in, trying to, you know, make some closures for the rest of the families here.

PALMER: It's a difficult routine that keeps the eight-year veteran of the force from his wife and two sons in New Jersey.

VERSAGE: My 5-year-old is pretty sharp. He says, "daddy, I saw the two towers fall down." I'm like, "Yeah." And you know, "everybody OK?" And he was -- and I told him no. PALMER: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey runs the tunnels and bridges that link the two states, as well as the area ports and airports. It used to manage the Twin Towers.

Thirty-eight of the Port Authority civilian employees and 37 of its police officers and commanders died in the attack, Officer Versage's colleagues and friends.

Versage was inspired by a discovery made by ground zero iron workers, the remnants of giant I beams in the shape of a cross.

VERSAGE: 9-11. The North and the South Tower.

PALMER: This cross Versage cut and shaped, and his vigilance at ground zero are his tribute to those who died on September 11.

Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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