3. A Bench in St. Paul’s Chapel Has Indents Due to 9/11 Rescue Workers Who Slept on it

St. Paul’s Chapel remains unchanged though the One World Trade now stands where the Twin Towers used to be. Photo by Augustin Pasquet.

Despite being located just across the street from the World Trade Center, St. Paul’s Chapel didn’t even have a broken window pane when the 9/11 attacks occurred (as common reports state). As soon as the building was determined safe, the chapel quickly developed into a make-shift relief center that served as needed reprieve, a place to rest, and a provider of food for relief workers.

More than 3,000 workers came to St. Paul’s for sanctuary over the course of three months following the attacks. The safety it provided, which has widely been referred to as a miracle, earned the structure its epithet: “The little Chapel that Stood.”

Today, a single bench that existed prior to the chapel’s restoration has been preserved. Found in the back of the chapel, next to the 9/11 memorial, it features scars and marks left behind from the belts of rescue workers,’ which scraped the pews as the workers slept on them. Quite literally, St. Paul’s had been built on a foundation of outreach.