Solemn ceremonies across NYC, Tri-State and beyond honor victims of 9/11
NEW YORK (WABC) -- New Yorkers and people across the country marked 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Solemn ceremonies and other tributes honoring the victims were held Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
At ground zero in Lower Manhattan, the names of the victims were read aloud by family and loved ones in a ceremony.
Many in the crowd at ground zero held up photos of lost loved ones as a moment of silence marked the exact time when the first hijacked plane struck the iconic twin towers.
Family members then read aloud the names of the victims, with many giving personal remembrances, well wishes and updates on their lives.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, and a host of current and former city officials were in attendance as well.
"The same hate that drove two planes through our towers is the hate that drove a bullet through the neck of Charlie Kirk. This hate is real and we need to reflect on that. Whenever you have an incident of this magnitude, you believe the damage was just done on that day. That is not true. We are still burying thousands of New Yorkers who are seeing the residual impact of the attacks on the twin towers. So today when he come here, we need to reflect, ask ourselves, who are we as a country," Adams said.
The other mayoral candidates, Zohran Mamdani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa would also pay their respects at ground zero.
RELATED | Complete Eyewitness News coverage of 9/11
Moments of silence also marked the exact times when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center's iconic twin towers, as well as when the skyscrapers fell.
Nearly 500 of those killed in the Twin Towers lived on Long Island. That day, many residents came to Town Park Point Lookout to confirm with their eyes what their televisions and radios were reporting about what had just taken place in New York City.
On Thursday, more than 1,000 people attended a sunrise ceremony to pay tribute to the victims. They cast flowers into the Atlantic where they once stood and watched the smoke.
On Staten Island, a ceremony was held at dusk to remember the 274 residents of Staten Island killed on September 11th, and first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Mayor Adams joined Borough President Vito Fossella for the ceremony. It was held at Staten Island's 9-11 memorial which sits near the borough's northeast tip. The inside walls have names, silhouettes and biographical information for each victim.
On Thursday evening, President Trump traveled to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx to watch the Yankees face the Detroit Tigers. It's where pregame ceremonies were held to recognize the victims and heroes of 9/11.
When the night sky finally enveloped the city, the iconic Tribute in Light returned once again. The twin beams of light, meant to evoke the original Twin Towers, have become a regular symbol for how New Yorkers remember the city's resilience after the attacks.
Ceremonies in Virginia and Pennsylvania honor victims
At the Pentagon in Virginia, the 184 service members and civilians killed when hijackers steered a jetliner into the headquarters of the U.S. military were honored in a ceremony attended by President Trump and first lady Melania Trump.
The president, in his remarks, recounted moments from that day, including snippets of conversations from passengers who were aboard the hijacked airplanes.
"Today, as one nation, we renew our sacred vow that we will never forget Sept. 11, 2001," Trump said during the observance, which took place in an internal courtyard of the building rather than its traditional location outside its walls near the building's 9/11 memorial.
"The enemy will always fail," he added. "We defy the fear, endure the flames."
And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a ceremony attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins honored the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
Elsewhere, people marked the anniversary with service projects and charitable works as part of a national day of service. Volunteers took part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other community events.
Reverberations from attacks persist
In all, the attacks by al-Qaida militants killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning buildings trying to save lives.
The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S. policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the "Global War on Terrorism" and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.
While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former al-Qaida leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never received a trial.
The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the National Sept. 11 memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.
The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a national monument.
In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
RELATED: Annual 9/11 remembrance ceremony to honor victims killed 24 years ago
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