Creators of 9/11 memorial in Manhattan Beach want people to remember victims who lost their lives

At the corner of Fifteenth Street and Valley Drive in Manhattan Beach, two bars of rusted steel aim for the sky with the message below: "We shall never forget."

Three hundred and forty-three New York City firefighters lost their lives 25 years ago during the 9/11 attacks as they responded to the devastating scene that unfolded at the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.

To honor the brave men and women who lost their lives that day, a 9/11 memorial sits outside of Fire Station 1.

Tyler Wade, fire chief of the station and a guardian of the memory of the fallen firefighters, said the memorial helps people never forget.

"People that made the ultimate sacrifice and what we all are willing to do every day," Wade said.

In the wake of the attacks, the Manhattan Fire Department sent two firefighters to New York to help with search and recovery.

The ties between the city and the Big Apple go back more than 100 years.   

Manhattan Beach was named after the borough of Manhattan in 1903 and plenty of current residents came here from there.

Scott Yanofsky remembers the attack as though it were yesterday.

"It's like I could have been there. It's just something that gets to me," Yanofsky said.

Steve Oliker was also born in New York and still feels the impact of the day.

"We don't ever want to forget.  It's just something that's really really important," Oliker said.

Yanofsky and Oliker collaborated to create the memorial. The two steel beams that point up are from the World Trade Center itself.  

"One of the main things was that we wanted the beams to be vertical," Oliker said. "We did not want them in a lying-down position."

When asked why, Oliker said, "It just represented death to us. We wanted life and life is heading straight up and we wanted that emotion."

The memorial opened in 2007, and visitors have been stopping by ever since. For some people, they stop by and remember and for others, they are learning the history for the very first time.

The concrete cutouts represent the north and south towers, and the beams are in the same position as they were in the tower itself.

Nineteen years after the memorial opened, Yanofsky still visits it almost every day.