CLINTON, N.C. — By donating time or money, many Americans did their part to help the country recover from the attacks of Sept. 11.

A large number of North Carolina companies are also doing their part.

One of the little-known casualities of the attack on the Pentagon was the destruction of the escalators. A Sampson County company helped to get the Pentagon moving again.

The Clinton operation for Schindler Escalator Step is the number-one supplier of escalators in the United States. The plant, which employs 92 people, has a contract with the Pentagon.

The plant got a rush order from the Pentagon to replace its damaged escalator steps.

Plant manager Chuck Spell said that the steps were damaged, but not destroyed.

Employees cast the aluminium steps, machined them, finished and shipped them back to Washington. They worked nonstop to get the job done.

"[We worked] around the clock for about three days. By the following Monday, we had these units turned back over to the operations at the Pentagon," Spell said.

Two plant engineers went along to supervise the installation.

"It was eight escalators. They were all stacked completely one on top of the other over four floors," engineer Roger Moulton said of his visit to the site.

The Pentagon gave the plant workers one of the damaged steps as a souvenir. The step was cut into pocket-sized pieces of history for the employees as a reminder of the day that changed the world forever.