Twenty-five years ago this morning, out of a very clear, very blue sky, a 135-ton airliner going over 400 miles an hour slammed into the 96th floor of a Manhattan office building, setting in motion one of the darkest, deadliest days New York and the nation have ever known.
A quarter-century on, at the annual reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa., the passage of time was palpable. Some 9/11 family members reading the names were so young when their parents were killed they said they had no memories of them. Others mourned grandparents, uncles and aunts they never met. At a similar observance at the Pentagon, President Trump spoke of American resilience.
“Sept. 11 reminded us of the terrible power of hate,” Mr. Trump said. “The 25 years since have shown us the even greater power of the American spirit to endure and prevail and to win.”
The ceremony in New York got underway, as always, at 8:46 a.m., with a beat of silence honoring the moment when the first plane, American Airlines Flight 11, struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Five more silences marked the times when other flights crashed and buildings fell.
But this year, a new, seventh moment of silence was observed at the end of the ceremony, to mourn those who have perished from cancer and other illnesses inflicted by the toxic dust they inhaled in the days and months after the attacks.
The new rite underscored the unending reverberations from that September day: Even as 2001 recedes into the past, deaths from 9/11-related disease are only accelerating and are believed to have outstripped the toll on 9/11 itself.
This week brought a revelation that for many in the city felt like a fresh wound. New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, released over 170,000 pages of reports, records and correspondence that, taken together, leave the impression that the city’s leaders, in their desperation to get Lower Manhattan and Wall Street up and running again, misled New Yorkers about the lingering dangers.
Though the New York memorial service is typically apolitical, several of the family members who read the names used their time at the lectern to deliver diatribes or pleas for understanding. Terry Strada, the widow of a broker who died when the towers fell, made an impassioned address about American officials’ continuing to work with Saudi Arabia even as family members seek to hold the Saudis legally responsible for the attacks. “It has been one betrayal after another,” she said.
The day’s final reader, Mike Massaroli, whose father was a vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald, criticized those who he said have for 25 years used the tragedy of Sept. 11 “to hate on our Muslim brothers and sisters, to hate on people who don’t look like them.”
All four living ex-presidents — Clinton, Bush, Obama and Biden — attended the New York ceremony. So did Mr. Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, despite a petition signed by thousands of people, including victims’ family members, urging him to stay away. Rudolph W. Giuliani — the city’s mayor on 9/11 — and other right-wing activists have also objected to Mr. Mamdani’s presence. Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Giuliani shook hands at the site before the ceremony began.
Here’s what else to know:
A new generation: For about 100 million Americans, the attacks are history that happened before they were born, existing as something they’re sure has shaped their lives, but in ways they cannot qualify.
New York’s mayor: Facing Islamophobic attacks and calls for him not to attend the New York memorial, Mr. Mamdani tried to keep the focus on the 9/11 victims.
The view from abroad: Even as they offered condolences to Americans on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, European leaders invoked the trans-Atlantic solidarity that emerged after the tragedy.
- Credits: The New York Times
- Author: Andy Newman
- Photo: Dave Sanders
