Bob and Barbara Krutzel in 2001.

Feb. 14, 2002 -- As part of the NPR feature Lost & Found Sound, a team of independent producers asked listeners to contribute stories and audio artifacts commemorating the life and history of the World Trade Center. Hundreds of calls poured in to the Sonic Memorial Project phone line, (202) 408-0300.

Some of the most surprising messages were the many tales of romance and marriage that took place 1,377 feet above sea level.

The 1976 Krutzel wedding.

Bob and Barbara Krutzel called to tell about their 1976 wedding at Windows on the World, on the 107th floor. They brought with them a little hand-held tape recorder and still have a cassette of their wedding vows, their Windows on the World invitation, menus and photographs.

That led Sonic Memorial producers to think about the thousands of others married at Windows on the World and on the Observation Deck of the World Trade Center over the years.

Another caller told about the World Trade Center Valentine's Day Wedding Marathon promotion and essay contests. For several years during the '90s, on Feb. 14, the contest winners -- 55 couples or 110 people, to equal the 110 floors of the Trade Center -- were selected to be part of a wedding marathon atop the towers.

Husband and wife Nino Calderon and Shannon Bruan.

Stories of interfaith marriages, interracial marriages, priests, rabbis, caterers -- a world of stories about love, family and the Twin Towers is contained in these recorded rituals, and now collected in the Sonic Memorial.

On Valentine's Day, All Things Considered shares these stories.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters, Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, with Jad Abumrad, Elinoar Astrinsky, Elana Berkowitz, Bruce Cohen, Daren Commons, Grace K. Heifetz, Chris Hosken, Warren Levinson, Marianne McCune, Jamie York and WNYC.

To see and hear more about The Sonic Memorial Project, visit the project Web site at www.sonicmemorial.org

WNYC
http://www.wnyc.org/