Page 36 - Port of Baltimore Magazine May/June 2011

[36] The Port of Baltimore ■ May/June 2011 To subscribe or renew, visitwww.marylandports.com
LOGISTICS
For many Americans, artifacts
recovered from the Sept. 11, 2001
terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington, D.C., are something
akin to sacred relics. As symbols
of sacrifice and courage — and reminders
of a tragic turning point in United States
history — they are to be treated respectfully
and handled with care.
That’s why Bowman Logistics, a division
of D.M. Bowman, Inc., was so proud to
donate its expertise in order to transport
New York World Trade Center artifacts to
Baltimore for the eventual construction of
a Maryland 9/11 Memorial.
“The opportunity to participate in a
small way … was a privilege and honor,”
said David J. Ebner, Chief Logistics Officer
with Bowman Logistics.
At the heart of the memorial will rest a
twisted mass of three steel beams and a
smaller steel shard taken directly from the
North Tower of the New York World Trade
Center. The beams, measuring more than
20 feet in length and weighing a combined
BY BLAISE WILLIG
total of about 5,000 pounds, were trucked
to the Port of Baltimore in November 2010
for safekeeping in a secured warehouse at
the Dundalk Marine Terminal. The completed
memorial is to be unveiled on Sept. 11, 2011 —
the 10thanniversary of the attacks.
Bowman, a warehousing, transporta-
tion and logistics provider (3PL) with more
than 50 years of experience, picked up the
artifacts from a hangar at John F. Kennedy
International Airport and carefully carried
them 270 miles to Bowman’s Hagerstown
headquarters. (Bowman has more than one
million square feet of warehouse space
within Foreign Trade Zone #255.)
“Despite the tremendous stresses
placed on the World Trade Center beams
on 9/11 itself, we did not want to cause any
further damage,” Ebner said, “so we secured
the pieces with wooden blocking and nylon
straps, rather than chains and binders, for
safe transport.”
A couple of days later, on Nov. 23,
a procession of Maryland State police
officers, firefighters and four Patriot
Guard motorcyclists escorted a Bowman
flatbed truck across 90 miles of roadway
to Broening Highway, where an Artifact
Receiving and Remembrance Ceremony
took place with Maryland Gov. Martin
O’Malley, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie
Rawlings-Blake and other dignitaries.
“The entire day was very reflective,”
said Ebner, who joined the Hagerstown-to-
Dundalk leg of the journey. “Prior to leaving,
we had numerous police and firefighters
from the area stop by to personally see and
touch the beams. The process was quiet and
reserved for all involved.”
Ebner, driver Ted Swart and the escort
personnel were greeted in Dundalk with a
large American flag hung from Baltimore
City Fire Department hook-and-ladder
trucks. A Maryland National Guard Honor
Guard was also on hand.
“You just knew this was a special moment
in time,” Ebner recalled. “When the bugler
played taps, it got pretty emotional.”
Bowman became involved in the
project at the request of the Maryland Port
Administration (MPA), which had already
been called on to contribute logistical
assistance.
“I was looking for a Maryland-based
logistics company that could provide
dependable and highly efficient service,”
said Sam Azzarello, MPA General Manager,
A Moving Experience with the
Maryland 9/11 Memorial
Bowman Logistics Donates Time and Talent to
Bring World Trade Center Artifacts to Baltimore
David J. Ebner of Bowman
Logistics stands beside the
twisted steel beams
brought to Baltimore from the
New York World Trade Center.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF D.M. BOWMAN, INC.