"This is what we do."

Those simple words, uttered by a New York iron worker, summed up the good works of thousands of building trades workers who helped - and offered to help - dismantle and remove the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center towers in the search for survivors.

Building trades workers were on the scene within hours of the collapse of the towers, ready to volunteer to take apart the large and small pieces of the seven-story pile of rubble that was covering the victims.

"I'm scared s---less, but there could still be people in there," said one volunteer iron worker on Sept. 12. "We'll stay around as long as it takes," said another.

News reports estimated that 16,000 volunteers descended on Ground Zero in New York to help in the rescue effort in the days following the terrorist attacks. Numerous trades workers from

Michigan also helped or offered to help in the rescue effort.

According to the AFL-CIO, more than 1,000 iron workers from the mid-Atlantic and New England regions volunteered to help, and were put to work in three shifts around the clock in the early stages of the operation. "The job of the iron workers has been unbelievable," said New York Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen.

But the iron workers weren't the only trades workers involved in the massive search for victims in the rubble. The New York City Building and Construction Trades Council "is operating around the clock," said Secretary-Treasurer Edward Malloy on Sept. 17. "We have thousands of people (of all trades) who are down there assisting the rescue, and we'll be working throughout the entire cleanup."

Malloy said the building trades lost about 35 electrical workers, painters, laborers, and steam fitters who were working in the towers when they collapsed. Maintenance and renovation work was constant in the towers, which were completed in 1973.

Craig Trykowski, a laborer working on the 34th floor of the tower hit by the first plane, told the Engineering News Record, "I was trying to clear the area of sheetrock ...and just as I was filling the dumpster, the whole building shook, it swayed back and forth. I thought at first it was an earthquake."

He and 70-odd workers hit the stairwell as water pipes broke and panic flared. As he went down, a group of firemen were going up, never to be seen again.

The extent of the tragedy of the collapse of the World Trade towers and the fire at the Pentagon in Washington became clear in the days afterward. In New York, the thousands of workers killed included some 300 firefighters and 85 police officers. A total of 189 civilian and military workers were killed at the Pentagon.

"We mourn those who perished as they performed their work, whether in rescue efforts, in offices or on airplanes," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "Union members have gone into action to assist the rescue efforts, and the AFL-CIO and our unions will do everything we can to assist the continued rescue operations and the medical care of those injured."

By Sunday, Sept. 16, volunteers in New York were being nudged off the job, replaced by employees of four contractors hired to do the salvage work.

For many volunteers, reports said it was wrenching to back off. But the switch from volunteer workers to paid contractors was inevitable at the World Trade Center site. One reason: volunteers didn't have to follow directives. Officials also needed to make sure workers on site were qualified, had safety training, came through union hiring halls, and were subject to jurisdiction.

It could take up to a year to remove the estimated 400,000 tons of rubble from the World Trade site. And there is already talk of rebuilding on the site.

"My grandfather worked on the World Trade Center," said iron worker Konrad Sawicki in the ENR. "He used to tell stories about the winds that were up there and how dangerous it was. No harnesses, no safety nets. Hardly anyone wore hard hats. He just told me, 'they took it down, now you'll get a chance to put it back up.' "