Family members and mourners gathered at the site of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history on Friday to commemorate those killed on Sept. 11, 2001, in lower Manhattan and mark the 25th anniversary since the tragedy. As they’ve done each year since 2001, the family members of those slain read aloud the names of the 2,983 people killed at the site on 9/11 and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
The ceremony, held between the twin reflecting pools located where the towers once stood, began soon after 8:30 a.m., and then the steady reading of names began. The readers, each related to someone who perished in the attack, spoke in pairs at a podium at the site.
Some of the speakers at this year’s ceremony were representative of how many years have passed since that day. One speaker, a young girl, invoked her aunt who was killed on 9/11, but mentioned she never met her. Others mentioned grandparents who were killed before they were born.
As family members read names, stoic NYPD officers and members of the FDNY stood behind them, as they’ve done at the ceremony each year. The uniformed city workers rang a bell at the moment each tower was hit by a plane 25 years ago.
Musicians, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma, played subtle and mournful music as the family members read the names. Politicians of all stripes, including Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Vice President JD Vance, and former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, attended. President Donald Trump did not attend the ceremony, but attended a ceremony at the Pentagon in Northern Virginia.
At 8:46 a.m., the moment hijacked Flight 11 struck the North Tower 25 years ago, the names stopped and the crowd paused for a moment of silence. It was one of six moments of quiet throughout the morning to mark when each tower was struck, then fell as well as the time of the attacks at the Pentagon and the United Airlines Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania.
9/11 continues to reshape NYC
For the first time, there was a seventh moment of silence this year to honor those who have died from illnesses connected to the toxic dust and debris that hung over Ground Zero. The memorial said in May that it will become a permanent part of the ceremony. Mamdani recently released a trove of documents indicating that public officials knew the air was poisonous even as they assured the public it was safe to return.
The federal fund that compensates those sickened by the fallout from 9/11 has received claims on behalf of more than 9,700 people who have since died. More than 145,000 others are enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program, which provides monitoring and treatment to responders and survivors.
A quarter century has passed since the attacks, marking a significant milestone in cultural memory. More than 100 million Americans were not alive during the attacks or were too young to remember them.
Mourners and commemorators gather at the 9/11 memorial marking the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
“As more people come of age with no memory of that day, this anniversary is an important moment to come together, reflect on how 9/11 changed our country, and reaffirm our shared promise to never forget,” Beth Hillman, president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, said in a statement.
Logan Miller is among this year's readers. He was 7 when his uncle, state court officer Sgt. Mitchel Scott Wallace, was killed in the attacks. His grandfather, Kenneth Wallace, died in 2016 as a result of illnesses related to his work in the aftermath of the attacks.
Miller said his family attends the ceremony every year, and this is his fourth or fifth time reading names. It takes more than three hours to recite them all.
“It really just shows the magnitude of the volume of people who were lost on that day,” he said. “Reading their names helps people realize it's not just a number, but there were people behind the numbers themselves.”
Though Miller was only 7 when the Twin Towers fell, he still has clear memories of how the hours unfolded. “ I think it is just such an outlier of a moment in my childhood that everything that took place that day is still pretty vivid in in my mind.”
But, he says, he’s on the very “end of the spectrum of people who can still remember,” making these sorts of commemorations all the more important. “For my generation, it's really important to think about how do we pass down the memories of those who were lost, but also help them understand who these people were [and] those who gave their lives to respond to the tragedy that was unfolding.”
A 9/11 mourner holds a photo of a firefighter killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor was also in attendance. In recent weeks, some politicians, including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Governor George Pataki, who were serving at the time of the attacks, have urged him not to attend. An online petition with the same request, has drawn more than 100,000 signatures.
Others, like City councilmember Shahana Hanif, have said attempts to exclude Mamdani echo the anti-Muslim sentiment that swept through the city and the nation following Sept. 11, 2001.
Later this afternoon, once all of the names have been read, the memorial will reopen to the public for those wishing to pay their respects.
This story has been updated with more information.
