Created from wreckage of the World Trade Center, "The Gate" stands 23 feet high and weighs about five tons. Upright steel beams represent the two towers, while squares of metal cascading down one side represent papers flying from the buildings as they collapsed on 9/11.
The center of the sculpture, which was conceived by Greensboro artist Jim Gallucci, pivots and turns like a gate, allowing visitors to walk through it and touch it. Metal squares along the base are engraved with children's letters and drawings done in the wake of the tragedy.
"Art's pretty powerful. Art can do a lot of things," said Gallucci, who initially constructed the sculpture last year on the campus of Elon University after petitioning New York authorities for permission to use scraps of the World Trade Center in a public art display.
"It just wasn't a New York tragedy. It was really a national tragedy," he said.
Workers spent more than four hours Monday assembling the sculpture, which will remain outside the airborne museum for a year.
"It's fabulous. It's very exciting. It's a wonderful piece of work. It's very meaningful. It's powerful," said Sandy Klotz, of the museum.
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