Ship Built With WTC Steel Sails for Namesake City

The USS New York sails down the Mississippi River through the Port of New Orleans in New Orleans,...

The USS New York sails down the Mississippi River through the Port of New Orleans in New Orleans, La., Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009. The ship was built with about eight tons of steel from the World Trade Center site and is on its way to New York its home port. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)

(AP)

A Navy assault ship built with tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center towers began its journey to New York on Tuesday, sailing down the Mississippi River in a pea-soup fog as watchers along the levee strained for a glimpse.

The USS New York, named to commemorate the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks , left the Northrop Grumman shipyard where it was built for the trip to its namesake city. The $1 billion ship will be formally commissioned in New York in early November.

The New York is 684 feet long and can carry up to 800 Marines. It has a flight deck that can handle helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Four tugboats performed an intricate set of maneuvers to pull the warship from the dock at the New Orleans-area shipyard and turn it 180 degrees toward the waters of Gulf of Mexico. An armed Coast Guard speedboat and a helicopter flying overhead guarded the vessel. The ship will sail through the Gulf and around Florida before turning north and continuing to New York.

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Deputy project manager Doug Lounsberry said the vessel was important to the builders, not only because it honors those killed in the terrorist attacks, but because workers were hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 during the early phases of construction.

"It's like raising a kid," Lounsberry said. "We're sending this one off to college. But after they leave, they remain near and dear to your heart."

Farther down the Mississippi, hundreds of people lined up along the river bank to watch the ship pass. Around 9:45 a.m., a man called "Here she comes!" prompting well-wishers to raise U.S. flags and camera phones, as the hulking warship emerged from the haze.

Tourists Dorice and Victor Brown and Christine Cox, of Sterling, Va., were getting coffee and pastries at a nearby cafe when they asked about the commotion and decided to check it out for themselves.

"It's awesome for anything so tragic to be so uplifting here," Cox said, just after the ship had passed.