Steel Across America Tour Stops at Mount Rushmore with WTC Steel Beam

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation's Steel Across America tour made its 26th stop at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in Keystone, South Dakota, displaying the 16,900-pound steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center's South Tower. At a ceremony honoring first responders, Stephen Siller Jr. — son of fallen FDNY firefighter Stephen Siller, for whom the Tunnel to Towers Foundation is named — told the crowd: "Each of those leaders understood that freedom is not free, and that the greatness of America has always been built on the backs of those willing to give everything in its defense." The tour's next stop was scheduled for August 1 at the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver, Colorado, as the beam continues its more than 10,500-mile journey ahead of returning to Ground Zero on September 11, 2026.