What happened to the steel from WTC after 9/11?

The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers on September 11, 2001 is one of the most horrifying incidents in history.

Construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower began in August 1968, and the South Tower in 1969. 200,000 tons of steel was used by the builders to build the WTC complex, enough to raise the height of the twin towers to 1,362 feet (south tower) and 1,368 feet (north tower).

A recent article by Washington Times gives an account of the steel collected from the debris of the twin towers.

It said that recovery workers collected 840 pieces of steel from the 1.8 million tons of debris removed from the site after the attacks. Some of these were cut up to make a total of 2,200 separate items, ranging from 6-inch slabs to huge beams to the 7.5 tons the Navy used in the construction of the warship USS New York.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey supervises the artifact program, reviewing applications and shipping out the steel and other items to about 1,500 individual nonprofit groups, governments or museums so far. The memorials or museum exhibit these artifacts in all 50 states and eight countries: Germany, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, The United Kingdom, Afghanistan, China and Ireland.

At present, fewer than 30 pieces of steel remain and even 14 years after the attacks, applications are still pending for the pieces of metal, mostly for memorials and museum exhibits.