From Greensboro to Ground Zero: Commemorating Courage and Unity

How North Carolina’s D.H. Griffin Company became central to the World Trade Center recovery

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. 

Today, we’re bringing you a special edition of Morning Updates to commemorate the 24th anniversary of September 11, 2001, a day that forever changed the United States and the world. 

That day is seared into the nation’s collective memory. 

It’s the date we’ll “never forget,” but the days and months that followed featured a different sort of heroism, as ordinary Americans flocked to lower Manhattan to help however they knew how.

One of them was David Griffin, Jr. After driving from North Carolina, he slipped under the yellow caution tape and started carrying debris to the mound. A few months later, he found himself in charge of the entire cleanup. 

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David Griffin, Jr., like many of us, watched 9/11 unfold from his office at the D.H. Griffin Company headquarters in Greensboro. At 33, Griffin had risen to company vice president after 15 years at the company his father, David Griffin, Sr., built into one of the top industrial demolition companies in the Southeast. 

Griffin watched as the North and South towers collapsed, creating a disaster site that spanned 17 million square feet, with 275,000 tons of steel and 1.8 million tons of debris.

D.H. Griffin typically assists companies with planned demolitions, a dangerous operation that requires proper preparation and execution. The World Trade Center (WTC) collapse was, of course, caused by a terror attack – those cleaning up the debris field faced thousands of serious safety and technical issues that they would have never seen in a controlled demolition. But Griffin knew he could help. 

“I had a strong desire to help,” Griffin told us recently, “and I knew that demolition [of partially remaining structures] was going to be a large aspect of this cleanup.”  

The day after the WTC attacks, Griffin packed up with his wife and three kids and headed to Ground Zero. “I wasn’t prepared for what I walked into, the devastation. Pictures did not do it justice,” Griffin said. 

The site was the sort of managed chaos one would expect. Griffin showed up and quickly got involved in the cleanup efforts. He joined thousands of first responders, city officials, and other volunteers in the bucket brigade, helping to excavate thousands of pounds of debris to make it easier for rescue technicians to reach any survivors under the rubble. 

Griffin assisted local authorities with basic cleanup efforts during his first few days at Ground Zero, just a humble volunteer there to help. But officials quickly realized they weren’t dealing with some random North Carolinian – Griffin had been around demolition jobs since he was a kid, and had the specialized expertise to do more than haul rocks. 

As the cleanup progressed, the biggest challenge facing site engineers was a large section of the Tower 2 curtain wall. The iconic facade on the tower’s exterior did not collapse with the rest of the building. Indeed, it was bolted to the ground, all 27 stories and 8,000 tons of it. 

The NYC Mayor’s Office solicited bids to demolish the wall – a big job. Most of the proposals involved using targeted explosives or breaking the structure into smaller pieces, a time-consuming process that would cost tens of millions of dollars.

But Griffin, who at that time managed about half of D.H. Griffin Company’s operations, had a creative idea. He figured he could get the job done with far less equipment and at a fraction of the price. He submitted a bid on behalf of D.H. Griffin Company. 

To describe his plan, Griffin likes to use the analogy of the tab on a soda can. The tab doesn’t break immediately because it’s connected to the can, but if you keep jiggling and applying pressure to it, the hinges holding the tab will eventually snap. Griffin argued to NYC officials that an excavator with cables could apply enough pressure to the bolts holding the curtain wall in place to eventually dislodge the structure from the ground. 

His plan, along with a dose of southern charm, convinced city officials to give it a try. They notified Griffin that he had won the contract on September 25, less than two weeks after he arrived in New York. “We saved the city millions of dollars just from that effort alone,” he said. 

Griffin’s plan worked. But while the demolition of the wall marked a major milestone in the WTC cleanup, it served as a sobering reality check. Before Griffin could move forward with the demolition of the wall, Mayor Giuliani issued an order that officially ended the rescue efforts underway at the WTC, changing the primary mission of those at the site to recovery and cleanup. For those with family members, friends, and co-workers still missing, it confirmed their loved ones were never coming home. 

Griffin said, “That was an emotional day for all those involved, especially the New York City officials and first responders.”

***

Following the demolition of the wall, City officials asked if D.H. Griffin would be the managing contractor for the remainder of the WTC cleanup. They gave David two hours to get back to them with a final answer. 

He conferred with his father, the elder David Griffin, and his wife. By this time, it was clear to all that the remaining cleanup would take over a year to complete, and due to its sensitive, technical nature would require David and other D.H. Griffin executives to be onsite for much of the project. Another factor under consideration was the immense risk the company would take in managing one of the most highly scrutinized cleanup projects in the history of the United States. 

The project would also take Griffin away from the company’s Greensboro office, and the hundreds of staff and dozens of projects he managed on a day-to-day basis. “My staff was concerned about how long I would be away. Who would manage the company in my absence?” David said. 

Ultimately, Griffin agreed to take the job, with two requirements. Bovis, a construction engineering company based in England, had hired Griffin as a contractor assigned to the WTC site after he arrived in New York City. He asked that Bovis continue to be his main employer and financier for his work at the WTC due to their preexisting relationship. The City agreed to both requests. 

With David at the helm, D.H. Griffin Company spent nine months on site. According to the company’s website, company personnel worked around the clock every day to finish the site’s cleanup eight months ahead of schedule. In total, they coordinated with more than 20 local, state, and federal officials. Amongst the rubble, they also recovered more than $500 million worth of gold and silver, and worked with over 30 federal agencies to return it to rightful owners. 

Each member of the executive team spent at least two to three weeks at the WTC, according to David. Managers took turns helping Griffin at the project site, flying in from the company’s offices in Greensboro, Atlanta, and Houston. He observed, “It was truly an all-hands-on-deck situation.”

Members of the North Carolina business community, interested in the work that D.H. Griffin was doing in New York, also came to visit the site. Griffin said, “There was great interest in our work from NC politicians and business leaders. Ed Weisiger and Bob Barnhill made the trip to NYC, and I got to show them around the site for a few hours.” 

David’s absence over those nine months made the company stronger, giving less experienced managers a chance to step up and lead in larger capacities. He explained that by opening up opportunities for others, people gained more confidence throughout the company, from the executive team all the way down the org chart.  

Griffin said, “We had a great team, and it was an honor to be part of the solution. Nobody in American history had ever dealt with anything like what we were doing.”

The experience taught David some important lessons in leadership that he still uses to this day. 

He said, “I learned the importance of having a solid team. When everybody is working in the same direction and is united by a common goal, so much can be accomplished. At the World Trade Center, people wanted to do the right thing for the country and that mission enabled us to complete the monumental task in front of us.” 

Additionally, Griffin says his experience managing a variety of engineering contractors at the WTC helped him understand the value of talent selection. “I got to work with some of the top engineers in the world. It opened my eyes to find the best and brightest whenever I am doing a job, because there’s a reason they are the best in the world.” Some of the contractors he got to know at the WTC remain friends and business partners to this day. 

Summing up our conversation, Griffin said D.H. Griffin’s work at the WTC placed the company on a completely new trajectory because of the reputational boost they received from the project. 

He also desires for people to remember not only the events of 9/11 but also how united the country was in its aftermath. The unity felt by the thousands of contractors and volunteers who spent hours doing cleanup was a microcosm of the nation’s attitude. 

“I don’t want people to forget. We were so united in the year after the attacks. We got back up with the resilience to keep moving forward. It was an honor to be there and help out in a terrible situation,” Griffin said.

Griffin had some five-pound bars of steel made from the melted-down remains of the Tower 2 core beam. He doles them out to close friends, family, and business partners with a simple message: never forget. 

At The Results Company, we have ours proudly displayed year-round as a reminder of the horrid events of 9/11, and of the extraordinary courage, perseverance, and unity displayed in its aftermath by American heroes like David Griffin, Jr. 

Never forget.