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Port Authority Offering 9/11 Artifacts To Organizations For Public Display

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A new chapter is beginning for artifacts salvaged from Ground Zero after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Fourteen years later, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is distributing the last relics still in its possession.

As CBS2's Chris Wragge reported, the artifacts will serve as memorials far from Lower Manhattan, including a subway car that took commuters to the World Trade Center.

"When I first saw it inside the hangar behind us, it felt like I was opening a tomb," said Erik Garces, with The Trolley Museum of New York.

Now, it will be taking visitors back in time as remnants from the 9/11 attacks find new homes, Wragge reported.

The train car was in a tunnel as the Twin Towers collapsed above it. It will become an exhibit at the Trolley Museum of New York.

"It's a way for people who aren't old enough to remember Sept. 11 -- as it recedes into the past -- to keep their hands on something that was actually there. And this way we can never forget the tragedy that was all those people who died that day," said Garces.

The Port Authority has been giving away everything still stored in an 80,000-square-foot hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is now set for demolition.

The remaining artifacts from the tragic day include damaged police cars, a huge elevator motor, a Victoria's Secret mannequin, a display of clothing -- shirts still folded, and a broadcast antenna that used to sit atop the North Tower.

"I wrote a letter to the Port Authority requesting a piece (of the World Trade Center) and this is what I got," said Louis Pabon, a former construction worker.

Now, it will become part of an outdoor installation at Fulton-Montgomery Community College in upstate New York.

"It's going to be set up as an axis mundi for the future for students to come and study and actually see a piece of the World Trade Center," said Pabon.

The last remnants will be distributed by March to various organizations on the condition that they be accessible to the public, Wragge reported.

If you're interested in the Port Authority's artifacts program, you can send a formal letter of request directly to the Port Authority's executive director to the below address:

Patrick Foye, Executive Director
Port Authority of NY and NJ
4 World Trade Center, 23rd Floor
150 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10006

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