Giuliani Carries Torch in Honor of City’s Fallen

The Olympic torch paused for a brief but solemn ceremony at the Statue of Liberty before it was handed off to Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for the final leg of its tour through New York.

Thousands crowded into Rockefeller Center to watch as Giuliani used the torch to light a caldron under a large statue of the Greek god Prometheus.

“I carry this flame as a representative of these wonderful people,” said Giuliani, citing the emergency workers who sacrificed their lives Sept. 11.

Runners who lost family members and friends in the terrorist attacks carried the torch across Staten Island and into Brooklyn as part of the New York leg of its 46-state, 13,500-mile journey to the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Later in the day, a ferry delivered the torch from Queens, around the lower tip of Manhattan and past the Statue of Liberty.