Update: U.S.S. New York sets sail: built with steel from the WTC

Update 11/8: She is now in active duty. God Bless.

USS New York, built with steel salvaged from the fallen Twin Towers, officially went into active duty yesterday in a somber but spirited ceremony on the West Side.

Families who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attacks gathered at the Intrepid Museum on Pier 86 with hundreds of others — including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton..

..It awes me to think that from the ashes, this ship has formed and to know it’s serving us,” said Helen Zaccoli, 45, whose husband, Joseph, died at the trade center.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stands among Navy personnel at the start of the commissioning ceremony for the USS New York on the Intrepid Museum on November 7, 2009 in New York City. The amphibious transport dock ship is made in part of 7.5 tons of reforged steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. UPI Photo/Monika Graff

Update 11/2: She arrived in NYC today. God Bless her and the crew and GOD BLESS AMERICA.

GIVE ME LIBERTY: The Statue of Liberty welcomes the newest Navy ship, USS New York, as it enters the harbor yesterday. Part of the vessel is made with steel from the World Trade Center. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The World Trade Center sailed into the city this morning.

The USS New York, which has a bow built from 7.5 tons of Twin Towers steel, stopped near Ground Zero as a detail on board fired off a 21-gun salute.

US Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Paul Bersher, of Long Island, right, stands watch as the USS New York as the ship passes under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge Monday, Nov. 2, 2009 in New York Harbor. (N.Y. Post: Chad Rachman)

Families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks standing on the north cove then saluted the Navy’s newest warship as it continued up the Hudson.

After the 21-gun salute, petty officers Mike Sullivan and Paul Bershers,who were on watch on the bow, started singing Billy Joel‘s “New York State of Mind.”

After the Ground Zero stop, the ship escorted by about two dozen tugboats and other vessels headed up the Hudson River toward the George Washington Bridge. After a U-turn there, it was to head south to Pier 88. An official commissioning ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.

“It’s a transformation … from something really twisted and ugly, said Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother, Sean, on 9/11. “I’m proud that our military is using that steel.”

Tallon said her brother, who was also was a Marine, also would have been proud…

The USS New York sets sail today

God Bless the ship and crew

NEW YORK (May 21, 2009) Sailors assigned to Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) New York (LPD 21) have a moment of silence for fallen New York fire fighters as they touch a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center. The ship has 7.5 tons of World Trade center Steel in her bow. Approximately 3,000 Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen will participate in Fleet Week New York City 2009. This week-long event will provide citizens of New York City and the surrounding tri-state area an opportunity to meet service members and also see the latest capabilities of today's maritime services. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Corey T. Lewis/Released)

NYPost:

Made with steel forged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center, the USS New York this morning begins its maiden voyage from New Orleans to the city for its Nov. 7 commissioning ceremony.

There is no shortage of Big Apple homages on board: The main passageway has been dubbed Broadway, the ship’s insignia references the NYPD and FDNY, and the diner-inspired galley, the Skyline Café, features a pre-9/11 blue neon outline of the city. There’s even a 34th Street and a 42nd Street on board.

LPD-21 Skipper Curt Jones and Yankees Manager Joe Girardi swap team ballcaps.

But it is the New York’s bow, made from Ground Zero steel, that makes this “amphibious landing platform dock” — which can deliver a 700-member Marine battalion anywhere in the world — a true New Yorker, Cmdr. Curtis Jones told The Post.

“Physically, literally and figuratively, that steel leads us every day,” said Jones, who hails from upstate Binghamton. Nearly 10 percent of his crew also hails from the Empire State.

“That fact is never lost on us. And it is hard to know what it is going to be like to come up into New York City and pass by the World Trade Center site,” he said.

The USS New York marks the first time the Navy has turned a casualty into an instrument of war, Jones said.

The ship’s primary mission will be to deploy Marine battalions to the scene of counterterrorism operations.

It was then-Gov. George Pataki who, shortly after Sept. 11, requested the Navy name a ship involved in the war on terror after the state of New York.

At 684 feet, the ship is slightly longer than a city subway train, and its 361-sailor crew could probably squeeze into one rush-hour subway train. The ship does not have the population of a metropolis, but the New York is still massive, displacing 24,900 tons at sea, while cruising at speeds faster than 22 knots (24 mph).

…In 2002, 7½ tons of World Trade Center steel were melted down and forged into the “stem bar,” the part of the bow that cuts through the sea. Many New Yorkers in the Navy requested assignments to the new ship.

Originally from Woodside, Queens, Manfred Tiedemann, 45, the ship’s boatswain, said the New York has special meaning for him because he lost his close friend, firefighter Paul Gill, in the terrorist attacks. Arriving in New York Harbor will be bittersweet, Tiedemann said.

“I will be thinking about the people that had to die in order to make the ship,” he said. “It was a horrible day, but hopefully this will provide closure to the families and we can all move on.”

Those killed in the Twin Tower were innocents who had war forced upon them, but Tiedemann said he hoped the ship would be a force for peace. “We’ve taken something that was done to hurt us and turned it into something that is going to benefit all of mankind,” he said.

The New York will spend the next 10 days running a series of training exercises. “We will also fire the ship’s guns for the first time,” Jones said.

After a weeklong stopover in Norfolk on Nov. 2, the New York will make the final leg of its trip through New York Harbor to Pier 88 on the West Side next to the USS Intrepid, where it will be officially commissioned Nov. 7….