Memorial functions as a sundial, tells story of 9/11

TAMPA (FOX 13) - This year will mark 17 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks. More than 1,100 cities across the country received artifacts from the Word Trade Center, and Tampa was one of them.

John Thompson, of Wilder Architecture, created a memorial using it, which sits along Bayshore Boulevard near Bay to Bay Boulevard. On the unforgettable day, he recalled grabbing a bagel for breakfast in downtown Tampa.

"They had a picture of the Twin Towers...(it was) a moment you never forget," he explained to FOX 13. "You didn't know if you needed to get your kids out of school or what was gonna happen next. Those are moments in time that you'll never forget. You'll always remember where you were and how it makes you feel."

Thompson said the memorial is a 1-to-100th scale of the World Trade Center. The dark column is one of the columns from the North Tower.

"So, we put it standing up straight like the column in the North Tower, symbolically," he explained. 

But it's the memorial is not just a place to reflect. It also tells the story -- and time -- of the series of events that unfolded that morning.

"The column for the World Trade Center acts as a sundial," Thompson said. "There's a portion of concrete that in the morning of September 11 when the shadow of the column hits that particular piece of concrete that's the impact of the plane on the north tower. As the morning carries on, when the column shadow falls off of the concrete, that's when the building fell."

It's a place where joggers stop to pray and groups stop to reflect, such as the Bayshore Patriots, an organization where members stand its corner every Friday to wave the U.S. flag at commuters.

Thompson invites everyone to come out the morning of 9/11, and see the sundial.

"When the shadow of the sundial of the column moves over that piece of concrete, it will take you back to that moment," Thompson said, "where everybody remembers where they were at when it happened."