World Trade Center cross

On September 13, 2001, a worker at the site named Frank Silecchia discovered a 20-foot (6.1 m)[5] cross of two steel beams amongst the debris of 6 World Trade Center.

[10] Father Brian Jordan OFM, a Roman Catholic Franciscan priest, has been trying to preserve the cross since April 2006.

"[15] In 2013, "U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts concluded...that the 17-foot-high cross, which became a spiritual symbol for workers at ground zero, does not amount to an endorsement of Christianity."

[16][19][4] The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish NGO, issued a statement that it "fully supports the inclusion in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum of the metal beams in the shape of a cross found in the rubble at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the tragic attacks on 9/11.

"[20] In the court decision in March 2013, Judge Deborah Batts opined that "the First Amendment separates church from state, but not religion from public life" and that "American Atheists advocates an 'absolute separation of church and state,' which would appear to call for a society in which public spaces are entirely religion-free zones.

Circuit ruled that, being "a symbol of hope" and "historical in nature", the steel beams "did not intentionally discriminate" against the atheists.

[4][22][23][24][25][26] A replica has been installed at the gravesite of Father Mychal Judge, a New York City Fire Department chaplain and the first public safety casualty of the day, who was killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center.

[28] Another replica cross was fashioned by ironworkers from Trade Center steel and installed at Graymoor, the Upper West Side headquarters of the Society of the Atonement, a religious institute of Franciscan friars.

[29] The nearby St. Paul's Chapel, which survived the destruction and was a refuge for survivors and site laborers, sells various replicas of the cross including lapel pins and rosaries.