Retired firefighter Lee Ielpi points to a map that shows the distribution of body parts found in the vicinity of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks as Jack Lynch, left, holds the map at the site of the trade center in New York, Friday, Sept. 5, 2003. The men, who lost firefighter sons in the attack, are lobbying with other victims' families to preserve the bedrock footprints of the World Trade Center's twin towers where their loved ones died. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Families of victims protest rebuilding at ground zero

NEW YORK -- About 15 people who lost loved ones in the World Trade Center attack tried to block a gate into ground zero in a protest against rebuilding on the footprints.

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Police thwarted the demonstration Wednesday by locking the large steel gate about 30 minutes before the protesters arrived.

The protesters wore yellow clothing and held signs with messages like "3,000 people consecrated this ground with their blood." They accused Gov. George Pataki of going back on a promise to never build on the footprints.

"An irreplaceable part of our American heritage is being systematically destroyed," said protester Beverly Eckert, who lost her husband in the 2001 attacks.

"My heart goes out to the families," Pataki said when asked about the protest. "We're doing everything we can to be as respectful and supportive and understanding of the families' desires as possible."

Reconstruction plans call for a memorial to preserve the approximate area the towers stood on. But infrastructure and other development would encroach on the footprints at bedrock level, an area viewed by some families as a sacred cemetery for the nearly 2,800 people who died there.

Eckert expressed fears that victims' children would visit the site, "only to find their sacrifice is marked by a shopping mall and a subway stop."

A Day at Ground Zero

A rally for the same cause is planned for Sept. 10.

--From the Thursday, September 11, 2003 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle