Monthly Group Walk, Trinity Tree Root, Trinity Church, October 30, 2009

Our monthly group walk for October 2009 was to the 'Trinity Tree Root', located at Trinity Church in Downtown Manhattan.

Sculptor Steve Tobin and his team of artists, sculptors, and restoration specialists in Quakertown, PA, created the Root carefully memorializing and preserving forever the natural remnants of the Trinity Tree Root, which was once located in front of St. Paul’s Chapel near the World Trade Center in New York City.

As debris rained down around the Chapel on Sept. 11, 2001, an enormous sycamore tree shielded the building from catastrophic damage. In the weeks that followed. St. Paul’s became a place of worship and a place of rest for those who worked tirelessly at the epicenter of the tragedy. Volunteers, counselors, and healthcare professionals transformed the Chapel into the central meeting place where workers ate, slept, wept, and were renewed as they poured time and effort into search and cleanup operations.



Eventually, St. Paul’s sycamore tree succumbed to the extensive damage from falling debris and was cut down. Its roots and stump remained at St. Paul’s until Tobin’s crew was commissioned to excavate and reproduce the root in bronze.

To create the bronze casting through the lost wax process, Steve and his crew needed to make numerous flexible rubber molds to capture the intricate shapes and detail of the stump and all the root structure.