Bells tolled Friday as New York City held moments of silence to observe the times hijacked planes struck the towers of the World Trade Center 14 years ago. Families of victims and others of the 2001 and 1993 World Trade Center attacks began reading names Friday at ground zero.
Nereida Valle carried a photo of her daughter, Nereida DeJesus, who was 31 and working for Aon when she died on the 98th floor of the south tower. Says the mother at ground zero: “I feel her every day.”
Mini flags and flowers dot the perimeters of the site’s reflecting pools, affixed lovingly next a victims’ names.
The Sept. 11 attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, including more than 2,700 in New York City.
Nearly a decade and a half after the planes crashed at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the 14th anniversary continues to be marked with observances around the country.
In Shanksville, a new $26 million visitor complex is expected to draw a larger than normal crowd to the Flight 93 National Memorial.
The complex opened Wednesday to the media and the families of the 33 passengers and seven crew members aboard the United Airlines flight that crashed in a field when some victims revolted against their hijackers on 9/11.
The center opened to the public on Thursday, and was expected to draw large crowds for Friday’s anniversary and the weekend.
The National Park Service is expecting about 5,000 people.
For the first time the Flight 93 observance ceremony was not being held at the memorial wall itself, but rather on a hill where the visitor center is located overlooking the crash site.
NBC News Chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski will be the keynote speaker. He was in his office when he reported an explosion at the Pentagon that day, which turned out to be another hijacked airliner, American Airlines Flight 77, crashing into the building.
Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco when al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists took control, with the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol. The 9/11 Commission concluded the hijackers downed the plane in southwestern Pennsylvania as the passengers and crew members revolted.
As in past years, the victims’ names will be read as a bell tolls solemnly until just after 10 a.m., when Flight 93 nosedived into the former strip mine about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
A Memorial Plaza near the plane crash site consists of a white stone wall that traces the doomed plane’s flight path, with each victim’s name engraved on a separate panel. There are still plans for a 93-foot-tall tower with 40 wind chimes near the national park’s entrance.
This year’s anniversary also comes as advocates for 9/11 responders and survivors are pushing Congress to extend two federal programs that promised billions of dollars in compensation and medical care. Both programs are set to expire next year.
But some of those close to the events aim to keep policy and politics at arm’s length on Sept. 11.
Organizers of the ground zero ceremony decided in 2012 to stop letting elected officials read names, though politicians still can attend. Over the years, some victims’ relatives have invoked political matters while reading names — such as declaring that Sept. 11 should be a national holiday — but others have sought to keep the focus personal.
“This day should be a day for reflection and remembrance. Only,” Faith Tieri, who lost her brother, Sal Tieri Jr., said during last year’s commemoration.
Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
