Tunnel to Towers family walks Stephen Siller's path on the 25th anniversary of September 11

On Friday, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Frank Siller, chairman and CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, walked through the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel with family members to retrace the final steps of his brother Stephen, an FDNY firefighter who died that day after running through the tunnel with 60 pounds of gear strapped to his back. The walk closed out Steel Across America, a 4.5-month tour that carried a 21-foot, 16,900-pound steel beam from the World Trade Center more than 10,500 miles through nearly 40 stops in more than 21 states.

Stephen Siller was 34, a husband and father, when he died. He had finished an overnight FDNY shift and was heading to play golf with his brothers when his personal scanner picked up news of the attacks. He turned his car around. Finding the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel closed to traffic, he strapped on 60 pounds of firefighting gear and ran through the tunnel on foot toward the Twin Towers. He never came home.

His son, Stephen Siller Jr., was 9 months old at the time of his father's death, according to Frank Siller. Speaking on Fox & Friends Friday morning, the younger Siller said the foundation had given his family "so much" in the years since. "Every day we have events across the country. Every day we're helping somebody in his name. That is such a beautiful, beautiful gift," he said.

What the steel beam carried

At each stop along its 10,500-mile route, the beam served as a gathering point, the foundation said, giving communities a place to honor first responders and veterans and to connect a new generation to the events of September 11, 2001.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation was built from that day's grief. Its programs include mortgage-free homes for Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children, specially adapted smart homes for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders, and full scholarships for undergraduate degrees and accredited trade school programs for children of home recipients. The foundation has also stated a commitment to eradicating veteran homelessness.

The final leg of the steel beam's journey ended Friday in the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the same passage Stephen Siller ran through 25 years ago.