by WARREN WOODBERRY JR.
The first time she ever saw Tribute Park, Peggy Glenn remembers, there was a fire truck parked alongside it.
Glenn, who owns Firefighters Bookstore in Huntington Beach, Calif., was riding through Rockaway Beach in the car of a Long Island friend of hers last week when they spotted the truck - and the park - and decided to investigate further.
"My friend said, 'I don't know what that park is all about, but it has a beautiful view of the city.'"
To Glenn's surprise, it also contained a special memorial to the firefighters who lost their lives in the 2001 terror attacks - situated with a full view of the lower Manhattan skyline where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
The names of the 343 FDNY members killed on 9/11 are etched on a huge granite stone, topped with a carved stone firefighter's hat.
The fire truck was there because several firefighters had stopped by to see the new memorial.
"Some of these people [memorialized] here are authors of books I sold, and some were personal friends and customers," said Glenn, the 22-year bookstore owner. "It's like serendipity."
After four years of planning and construction, Tribute Park opened Nov. 6 at the end of Beach 116th St. off Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park.
It also features a patch of bricks inscribed with the names of the 70 Rockaway residents - and a separate memorial honoring the 22 cops - who were killed when the twin towers collapsed.
Visitors to the park last week walked slowly, glancing down at the path of inscribed bricks. Landscaped, the triangular park extends from the sea wall over Jamaica Bay and offers a panoramic view of the Manhattan skyline.
In the center of the park is a large slanted stone mariner's compass that allows visitors to read the names of peninsula neighborhoods while viewing the city skyline.
At the far end is a stone gazebo with a compass on its floor that points to where the Trade Center towers once stood. Plans call for the gazebo to be topped with a dome fashioned out of faceted glass by local artist Pat Clark that will also honor the memories of the 70 local citizens killed on 9/11.
The half-acre parcel had been an overgrown field that anglers once used to gain access to the bay. After the land was cleared in early 2001 for a simulated Viking landing event, community leaders mobilized to make it into a park.
Rockaway Chamber of Commerce president John Lapore said it was decided that funds collected for a memorial to the local 9/11 dead would go toward building the $700,000 park.
"When people saw the smoke coming out of the towers, people were just drawn to that spot," Lapore said. "People watched the towers come down from that spot, and it left a mark on them."
"It's a little sad," said visitor Alice Smith, 74, of Rockaway Park as she looked down at the memorial path of bricks. "because you see the names of so many young people who are no longer with us."
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