The Trinity Root, at Trinity Church

The 'Trinity Root', an artist's memorial sculpture of the tree that shielded St. Paul's Chapel from harm on September 11, 2001

On September Eleventh 2001, Trinity Church might have been erased by falling wreckage of the collapsing World Trade Center, but an old sycamore tree in the churchyard cemetery caught and deflected the metal projectiles — saving the building but losing its own life. The crushed tree was sawed-up and removed, but the stump was saved at a temporary memorial to the 9-11-01 events and also in remembrance of the providential rescue of the church. Later Artist Steve Tobin obtained the tree's root-pack and made a life-sized cast of them in bronze. The freeform roots shape was purposefully up-ended and then painted orange. The sculpture, titled (The) Trinity Root, serves the same purpose as the preserved stump — though in a more permanent manner. The lost sycamore was replaced by a tall pine named the Tree of Hope.

Trinity Church (also known as Trinity Wall Street) at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Trinity Church is at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, in New York.

Photo 503, Oct 2010