NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) – People joined together in Lower Manhattan and across the nation on Wednesday to commemorate the 23-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed 2,977 people and have resulted in thousands of additional deaths from 9/11-related illnesses.
On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida hijackers crashed four passenger planes, killing 2,753 people in New York, 184 people at the Pentagon, and 40 people on Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa. The observance at the 9/11 Memorial commemorates the victims at all three sites, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The horrors of that day have only been compounded in the decades that followed, as more than 5,000 people have succumbed to 9/11-related illnesses, many from rescue and recovery work.
• Watch the 9/11 Memorial ceremony
The 9/11 Memorial ceremony can be watched in its entirety here:
• WINS remembers 9/11 on 23rd anniversary
1010 WINS reporters were on the ground and over the air as the horrific and historic day unfolded. The audio montage below recalls the urgency and gravity of a moment that still reverberates 23 years later:
• Follow live updates throughout the day
2:30 p.m. -- Trump visits Flight 93 National Memorial
Donald Trump's campaign said the former president laid two wreaths at the Flight 93 National Memorial. He placed one at the Wall of Names, where the names of Flight 93’s 40 victims are inscribed on white marble panels, and another at a sandstone boulder that marks the general location of the impact site where the flight crashed.
“Great day. Incredible place. And they’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said in brief remarks from afar to reporters gathered at the site.
2:15 p.m. -- Biden, Harris visit Flight 93 National Memorial
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris paid their respects at the Flight 93 National Memorial to honor the 40 passengers and crew that died in the rural swath of Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
The president and vice president laid a white and red wreath at the memorial. They then strolled the fields of the expansive memorial, which includes a long granite walk that marks the path of the flight with large concrete walls framing the distant view of the sky. The times of the crashes of the other hijacked flights are inscribed on the flight path walkway.
Both spoke with Flight 93 families in attendance.
One attendee spotted in the crowd of about 200 was wearing a t-shirt that included vulgar anti-Harris sentiments. The man sporting the t-shirt said he wasn’t related to any of those who died in Shanksville.
Biden and Harris were scheduled to visit the Pentagon later Wednesday.
1:45 p.m. -- Volunteers honor 9/11 victims at Intrepid Museum
More than 6,000 volunteers were at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Manhattan’s West Side on Wednesday to pack 2 million meals for those in hunger—a way to give back and honor the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
All of the meals will be donated to City Harvest and the Food Bank of New York for distribution to individuals and families.
The NYC Meal Pack for 9/11 Day is one of 21 large-scale volunteer service projects organized by the nonprofit organization 9/11 Day, which planned to mobilize 30,000 volunteers to pack a record 8.5 million meals.
Event co-founder Jay Winuk’s brother Glenn Winuk worked as a volunteer firefighter and EMT. He died rescuing people in the South Tower.
“We wanted to create a ritual in this country if we could,” Winuk said, “of people coming together and putting aside our differences, and focusing on our common humanity.”
1:15 p.m. -- Trump visits FDNY firehouse in Lower Manhattan
Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, visited the FDNY Engine 4/Tower Ladder 15 firehouse in Lower Manhattan after going to the 9/11 Memorial ceremony earlier in the morning. Photos show the former president and GOP presidential candidate posing for photos with firefighters at the firehouse, which is near Pier 11 on the East River.
1 p.m. – Annual commemoration held at Point Lookout
The annual September 11th Sunrise Memorial Service was held in Point Lookout, Nassau County, on Tuesday morning. Hundreds attend the service each year, many of them holding photos of loved ones killed on 9/11.
Mary Muldowney turned around to show the back of her jacket featuring images of her brother and cousin—Richard Muldowney and Ken Watson, FDNY firefighters killed on 9/11.
“They went on the job together, they went through the academy together and they died together,” Muldowney said. “They died what they loved doing.”
Hempstead Town Supervisor Donald Clavin said, “The Sunrise Service is a really important service. You know, 23 years ago residents came to this location to watch events unfold.”
The service is held on the sand by the ocean. A memorial with American flags is lined up with the names of victims—a list that has been growing as people continue to die from 9/11-related illnesses.
“When it was constructed back in 2018, we had about 2,500 plus, and sadly we're now at over 4,000 names that have been added to this wall,” Clavin said.
“We not only remember those we lost on the day but the ones we're losing every year,” he said. “Every day a life continues to be stolen by those events.”
12:30 p.m. -- Remembrance ceremony held in Essex County
Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. hosted the annual Essex County Remembers ceremony at the Essex County Eagle Rock September 11th Memorial.
The remembrance included Susan Rossinow, whose husband Norman Rossinow was killed on 9/11, and Michael DeRosa, whose aunt Antoinette Duger was killed on 9/11.
11:30 a.m. -- Wife of victim attends every 9/11 ceremony
Diane Massaroli, whose husband Michael Massaroli, 38, worked as a VP of operations at Cantor Fitzgerald and was killed on 9/11, has attended every ceremony since then. She makes sure to arrive early in the morning.
"I want to get right in the front so I can hold his picture up," she said. "That's my main goal now throughout these years is that everyone sees his face and no one ever forgets him."
Twenty-three years later, she said she misses even the most everyday moments with him.
"I miss him, believe it or not, the very simple things. Him sitting on the couch watching the Mets games."
11 a.m. -- Scenes from the 9/11 Memorial and Lower Manhattan
Photos capture the 9/11 Memorial ceremony and events taking place downtown during Wednesday's commemoration.
10:30 a.m. -- Local and national leaders at 9/11 ceremony in NYC
Numerous leaders from across the nation and political spectrum are attending the commemoration at the 9/11 Memorial.
They include President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, state AG Letitia James, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. Kathy Hochul, Gov. Phil Murphy and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Mayor Eric Adams was not able to attend, as he was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier this week.
10 a.m. -- Reading of the names continues at emotional ceremony
The annual reading of the names is continuing at the 9/11 Memorial. All of the names are read by relatives who volunteer and are chosen by lottery.
The solemn ceremony includes the tolling of a bell and moments of silence marking significant events from Sept. 11, 2001, including when each of the Twin Towers was struck and collapsed. During the moments of silence, weeping can be heard from those in attendance.
Anthoula Katsimatides lost her brother, John Katsimatides, 31, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald in the North Tower. She hasn't missed a year of the memorial ceremonies.
"John was one of those crazy, loud, fun-loving, extremely happy-go-lucky guys that everyone adored, everyone thought he was their best friend," she said. "He was certainly my best friend."
"Twenty-three years later, people assume that it's been a long time, and it has been," Katsimatides said. "But when you're left with this unbelievable void, no passage of time will ever fill that."
9:10 a.m. -- Jon Stewart presses to get first 9/11 troops full care
The first U.S. troops to deploy after the Sept. 11 attacks are suffering from radiation exposure that the government has yet to officially recognize 23 years later. They are a final group of 9/11 service members that comedian Jon Stewart, a champion for first responders, can't leave behind.
“K2 veterans were the tip of the spear. They were the first group deployed in the war on terror, and they are still on a lazy Susan of bureaucratic nonsense, keeping them from getting the benefits and health care that they earned,” Stewart said in an interview this week with The Associated Press.
Stewart is pressing the Biden administration for changes to get the K2 veterans fully covered and he called into a meeting Monday between veterans and the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for health affairs.
8:30 a.m. -- Biden, Trump, Harris, Vance and other leaders attend
Various national and local leaders are attending Wednesday's ceremony in Lower Manhattan. Among those who stood side by side as the event began were President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Senator and VP candidate JD Vance, Sen. Chuck Schumer and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is the chairman of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
7:45 a.m. -- Biden is in NYC for 9/11 ceremony
President Joe Biden, on the last Sept. 11 of his term and likely his half-century political career, is headed with Vice President Kamala Harris to the ceremonies in New York, in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.
Photos show the president arriving on the tarmac at Kennedy International Airport in Queens on Tuesday evening.
7:30 a.m. -- Harris, Trump set to attend 9/11 commemorations
Sept. 11 falls in the thick of the presidential election season every four years, and it comes at an especially pointed moment this time.
Fresh off their first-ever debate Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both expected to attend 9/11 observances at the World Trade Center in New York and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who's Trump's running mate, will also be at the New York ceremony.
Then-senators and presidential campaign rivals John McCain and Barack Obama made a visible effort to put politics aside on the 2008 anniversary. They visited ground zero together to pay their respects and lay flowers in a reflecting pool at what was then still a pit.
It’s not yet clear whether Harris and Trump even will cross paths. If they do, it would be an extraordinary encounter at a somber ceremony hours after they faced off on the debate stage.
Regardless of the campaign calendar, organizers of anniversary ceremonies have long taken pains to try to keep the focus on victims. For years, politicians have been only observers at ground zero observances, with the microphone going instead to relatives who read victims’ names aloud.
“You’re around the people that are feeling the grief, feeling proud or sad — what it’s all about that day, and what these loved ones meant to you. It’s not political,” said Melissa Tarasiewicz, who lost her father, New York City firefighter Allan Tarasiewicz.
7 a.m. -- Six moments of silence will be observed citywide
As the annual reading of the names takes place at the 9/11 Memorial, these six moments of silence will be observed:
8:46 a.m. -- Citywide moment of silence in observance of time American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower.
9:03 a.m. -- Moment of silence in observance of time United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.
9:37 a.m. -- Moment of silence in observance of time American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
9:59 a.m. -- Moment of silence in observance of time of fall of the South Tower.
10:03 a.m. -- Moment of silence in observance of time United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
10:28 a.m. -- Moment of silence in observance of time of fall of the North Tower.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
