Tribute to 9/11 workers takes shape in granite country

BARRE, Vt. (AP) — A tribute to thousands of rescue and recovery workers who labored in the ruins of the World Trade Center is taking shape in Vermont, where workers are chipping at and chiseling slabs of granite that will be installed this spring at the national Sept. 11 memorial.

The new area with a path flanked by stone monoliths will also honor those sickened or who died from exposure to toxins after the towers fell.

One of the six monoliths weighing between 15 and 17.5 tons (13,600 to 16,300 kilograms) was nearly complete last week at the Rock of Ages granite manufacturing company in Barre, Vermont, a small community that has a long history of quarrying and stonecutting and dubs itself the granite capital of the world.