LOWER MANHATTAN — A fire truck that was crushed by falling debris on 9/11 took its place in the future museum at the World Trade Center site Wednesday afternoon.
The Ladder 3 truck, wrapped in a white shroud, hovered briefly over the tree-shaded memorial plaza before being lowered into the ground, as bagpipers played "America the Beautiful," dozens of firefighters saluted and family members of fallen firefighters wiped away tears from behind sunglasses.
"It's almost like another burial," said Carolyn Brown, whose brother Patrick "Paddy" Brown was the captain of the East Village unit when he was killed in the attack.
"It's very sad…. But also, [it's] more closure. They're all together again."
Eleven firefighters from the company rode the truck to Ground Zero on 9/11 and rushed into the North Tower shortly before it collapsed. None made it out alive.
Brown, 47, a Long Island resident, hopes future museumgoers will look at the mangled fire truck and remember the sacrifice of the men who rode inside, including her brother.
Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, said he chose to hold a ceremony to mark the fire truck's return to the site because he wanted to treat the moment with the solemnity it deserved.
"Like a funeral, we wanted to give people the opportunity to pay their respects," Daniels said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano both attended Wednesday's ceremony and greeted the victims' family members afterward, but they did not speak publicly.
Until now, the 60,000-pound fire truck has sat in a hangar at JFK Airport alongside other scorched remnants of the attack. The rig is missing its entire front section, and its ladder is twisted out of shape, said Jan Ramirez, the 9/11 museum's curator.
"You can see that it's just been through terrible trauma," Ramirez said.
The truck will now rest 70 feet below street level, where the underground 9/11 museum is scheduled to open on Sept. 11, 2012.
The larger museum artifacts, like the fire truck, have to go in early so workers can finish building the museum's roof. An Engine 21 fire truck and an FDNY ambulance will also be placed in the museum this week.
Workers previously installed the Survivors' Stairway, which many fleeing office workers used to escape on 9/11, and the Last Column, which was covered in makeshift memorials while it stood at Ground Zero during the recovery effort.
