On the morning of September 11, 2001, terrorists slammed two commercial planes into the Twin Towers. In Lower Manhattan, the sky suddenly went from brilliant blue to black and gray. Thousands of residents, workers and tourists ran for their lives at the time of the crashes and then again some 100 minutes later, when the towers fell and filled the sky with hellish plumes of smoke and ash. Nearly 3,000 men, women and children as young as two years old perished, including 343 firefighters, 60 city and Port Authority police officers and more than a dozen other first responders. Fires raged, five World Trade Center buildings were leveled, some 14 million square feet of commercial space was destroyed or damaged. Downtown had become a war zone, and the entire city a victim of unspeakable tragedy.
That fateful day was 25 years ago. In two-and-a-half decades, the neighborhood — and city, nation and world — have transformed in unbelievable ways. This week, we’re remembering those we lost in the attacks and the days of horror and anguish that followed. We’re also celebrating how far we’ve come as a community in the face of terror, a sign of Lower Manhattan’s enduring grit and resilience.
To that end, we’ve documented Lower Manhattan’s historic rebuilding on our website, where you can learn more about recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, and in the decades since. You can also watch our interviews with founding president of the Downtown Alliance Carl Weisbrod, who speaks about his firsthand experience on September 11, and with current president Jessica Lappin, who discusses downtown’s bounceback.
If you’d like to find community in Lower Manhattan this week, there are a number of neighborhood events, including a service at the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and a “Sounds of Remembrance” concert at PAC NYC. And, as we do every year, look up at the sky on Friday night for “Tribute in Light” as the Twin Towers momentarily return to our skyline as two magnificent beams of light. It’s one of the best ways to remember and reflect, and to keep the memories of that tragic day and those we lost alive for the generations to come.
photo: iStock
