Twenty-four years to the day after two airliners struck the Twin Towers, a single Callery pear tree stands amongst 400 swamp white oaks at the National September 11 Memorial. At 8:46 a.m. on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower; 17 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower. Within two hours, both towers collapsed. A third plane hit the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., and a fourth went down in rural Pennsylvania. In total, nearly 3,000 lives were lost, with thousands more first responders also succumbing to related illnesses in the years since.
Adjacent to the site of the towers stands the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center, with a single Survivor Tree standing on the concourse beside the Memorial. Unearthed from Ground Zero weeks after the attacks – back in October 2021 – with snapped roots and charred bark, the pear proved tenacious. “A branch right over here was poking out of the debris field, and it had given off some leaves,” recalls Ronaldo Vega, senior director of design. “Trees don’t give off leaves in October unless the tree wants to live. Unless the tree wants to show the world, ‘I still have life.’”
City Parks crews transported the sapling to a Bronx nursery for nine years of intensive care and nurturing. In 2010, it was replanted just west of the South Pool, six feet beneath the plaza in six feet of soil. Today, the Survivor Tree stands more than 30 feet above the pavement, unfurling its first blossoms each spring. Its dedication plaque reads: “Today, the tree stands as a living reminder of resilience, survival and rebirth.”
Wood Central understands that from 2013 to 2023, seedlings from the tree were sent to communities reeling from violence and natural disaster—including Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Newtown and London. And although that exchange has paused over concerns about invasiveness, the Survivor Tree still stands over Manhattan.
- To learn more about timber’s connection with September 11, click here for Wood Central’s top story on the push to fully reassemble the Ground Zero Gunboat in time for America’s 250th anniversary of independence.
