World Trade Center's "survivors staircase" moved

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portion of staircase from the World Trade Center that provided an escape route for some survivors of the September 11 attacks was moved from its original site on Sunday ahead of its installation in a memorial museum.

The so-called survivors staircase, which had stood amid the rubble of the trade center and the later construction site as rebuilding commenced, was lifted intact with a giant crane onto a flatbed truck and moved some 200 feet away.

It will later be installed in the World Trade Center Memorial Museum, where the intact fragment roughly one story high and consisting of about 35 steps will serve as the centerpiece.

Officials from the Port Authority, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, as well as national and local preservation groups watched on a day with clear, sunny skies that recalled the morning of September 11, 2001.

Passersby also gathered to watch, along with some survivors of the attacks. Tom Canavan told local television that he used the Vesey Street staircase as the only means of escape down to the street from the devastated towers' plaza after tunneling his way out from the collapsed south tower.

Two hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center's north and south towers on September 11, leading to their eventual collapse and killing more than 2,600, as well as everyone on the two jets.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)