As days became weeks, some risks were no longer worth taking if no more lives were to be lost. The rescue effort became one of recovery and the approach more cautious. The pace and the direction of recovery, demolition and debris removal were driven by the condition of the structures below ground and the stability of the slurry wall surrounding the deep basement.

Mapping the ever-changing subterranean world below the pile was a ceaseless task. Working with Peter Rinaldi from the Port Authority and engineers from Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers (MRCE), Garlock and his LERA colleague Billy Howell descended almost daily on reconnaissance missions to review intact structure, the location of debris and the stability of the slurry wall. They would then compile their notes and MRCE would then use the information to draft damage assessment maps — underground snapshots for the contractors and rescue workers. Often during these "incursions" it was the uniform personnel that held the engineers back from "dancing too close to the edge." Engineers tend to see a crack and follow it, says Garlock. "They would always say, 'Do you need to go right out to the edge? Could you step back?'"

The most rewarding moments on the site were when the recovery workers found victims, says Garlock. Families would come to the site with flowers, "Was my husband here? Was my brother here? I need to know for certain." When recoveries were made, the call would go out, "Two were found today. Three were found last night," says Garlock. "We knew then that these people would get closure and relief."

The year was hard on his family as well, says Garlock, who lives midway between Manhattan and Lehigh University, where his wife Maria is getting her PhD in structural engineering. "Both of us could never ever imagine marrying another engineer," he says. "It is just that we were perfect for each other," Exhausted from 12 to 15 hour days, Garlock often stayed in Tudor City with his brother-in-law, and was away from his young children, then two and three.

The attack on the towers was heart-wrenching for LERA, he says. In addition to losing friends and colleagues, the firm lost twin jewels in its portfolio. On the wall of LERA's reception area is a model of the complex, turned on its side. The 110-story towers poking out precariously, dwarfing surrounding buildings, two stark reminders of their hyperbolic proportions.

Garlock strains trying to explain to a non-engineer why, in addition to their size, the towers were so structurally exceptional, innovative, fantastic. "The structural engineer provides the skeleton to the architect's skin," he begins. "Depending on the building, the structure can be in the background, or it can be in forefront. Very often, it is hidden behind the façade. The WTC was very pure in how it related to the architect's vision. The façade of the building was very tightly wrapped, knitted around the structure. Inside the building looking out, you could see, column, window, column. Outside looking up, you literally saw its strength." Furthermore, he adds, "if you really look at the drawings, if you study the systems employed, it was a feat of engineering for its time. In law it would be a landmark case."

Most of the rewards of the profession are visual, says Garlock, who started out in school as an electrical engineer, but lasted only a year when he realized he would be working with tiny electrical switches, transistors and chips. During his undergraduate days at Syracuse University, Leslie Robertson came to speak. "Les talked about the buildings his firm was doing around the world," he says. "They were unique buildings, working with great architects." Garlock later went on to Lehigh to earn his M.S. in civil engineering, specializing in structures.

He was finishing up his masters at Lehigh in February 1993 when terrorists first struck the WTC. Shortly after going to work for LERA that summer, Garlock was assigned to the reconstruction of the subgrade levels of the North Tower destroyed by the bombing. He was just finishing the construction phase on the new Soho Prada store with Rem Koolhaus in September 2001. As the year anniversary of the attack approaches, Garlock is still assigned to the site: the Port Authority has retained LERA to do work on the PATH station and the Church Street viewing wall.

A Christian, Garlock says his faith sustained him through the rougher moments on the pile. For a man who likes to understand every detail of how things are put together, Garlock does not need to know how the events of September 11th figured into God's designs. "I don't struggle with not knowing everything that he has planned," he says. "The terrorists exercised free will that day to do something horrific. Government systems in place failed to stop them. I just focused on what people needed me to do and did it, knowing that I was going to be taken care of in the end."

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