New York City released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed air-quality records this week, showing city officials at the time knew conditions around Ground Zero were unsafe despite repeated public assurances. That’s the hard record behind the polished ceremonies, the flags, the speeches, and the carefully managed mourning on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, including more than 400 first responders, and many more have died in the years since from related health effects. The anniversary brought ceremonies, moments of silence, vigils and tributes at Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and communities nationwide. The state and its institutions know how to stage remembrance. They’re far less eager to answer for the exposure, the lies, and the long tail of damage.
Who Pays for Their Order
At the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, family members read the names of those who died in the attacks and seven moments of silence were observed, including a new seventh moment added this year to honor people who have died of health issues related to toxic exposure at the World Trade Center site. Vice President JD Vance attended the ceremony, along with all four living former US presidents — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Former first lady Jill Biden, former first lady Laura Bush, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were also present.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani later spoke at an interfaith memorial service at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine. He said, “The towers rising against a perfect blue sky, boats in the harbor, and then the violence of the attacks. A sight so jarring, so unnatural, that even 25 years later it still shocks the body.” He also said people remember how New Yorkers helped each other and the resiliency that came after the attacks. Mamdani said, “Those who attacked our city, they did so because they thought they could break us at the fractures. They thought they could frighten us. They could make us feel alone. They could leave us on our knees. How wrong they were. How quick we were to stand back up.” He added, “When this building was little more than a crater filled with rubble, you dug deep in every conceivable way. You found the strength to rebuild. You found the strength to renew. You found the strength to recover.”
That language of recovery sits beside the city’s own records showing officials knew the air was unsafe. The people who cleaned, breathed, and kept working paid the price. The people who signed off on reassurance got ceremonies.
The Machinery of Remembrance
President Donald Trump delivered remarks at the Pentagon alongside first lady Melania Trump. He called the attacks a “moment of immense and horrible evil” that forced the nation to unite against terrorism and said, “we’re being tested today,” tying the anniversary to the ongoing war with Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also spoke. At the Pentagon observance, military personnel and first responders watched as an American flag was unfurled.
In Shanksville, family members read the names of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93, which crashed in a field near the borough after passengers fought hijackers. Two bells chimed during the ceremony and there was a wreath-laying at the Flight 93 memorial. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the attacks were one of the moments in history that “splits time,” adding, “We remember the world before that moment, and then the world changes after that moment.” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and others gave remarks, and a student choir sang songs.
Burgum said, “As a former governor, I’ve got great appreciation for the leadership that Josh is delivering here, and it’s fantastic your words today, just terrific.” He also said the United States needs to prevent another such terrorist attack, especially by preventing terrorist groups from having nuclear weapons, and said the military is “facing threats far bigger, far bigger than four airplanes.” He added, “So I especially want to give thanks to our military that’s here and abroad today because they’re doing the work to try to make sure that we never have another 9/11 again.”
The apparatus always finds a way to turn grief into legitimacy. Flags unfurled. Officials praised. Military personnel stood in formation. The people who lost family members, lungs, and years of health were folded into the ceremony, but the institutions that failed them remained on the stage.
What the Records and the Bodies Say
CNN said cancers among enrolled first responders and survivors were up 900% in the last decade, and that more than 57,000 responders and survivors enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program have been diagnosed with cancer, while nearly 7,000 people enrolled in the program had died as of March 2024. CNN also reported that a former FDNY firefighter, Lt. Gerard Reilly, died on September 3 at age 75 from an illness related to his exposure during rescue and recovery missions at Ground Zero. Reilly, also known as “Jerry,” had served 21 years and retired just over a year after the attack. His family, the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York, the Nanuet-West Nyack Rotary Club and Congressman Mike Lawler all paid tribute to him.
The anniversary also brought personal stories of survival and loss. Emma Gaitan, originally from Ecuador, said she worked 18 years at the World Trade Center for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, survived the 1993 bombing and was on the 82nd floor of the North Tower on September 11, 2001. She said a coworker grabbed her wrist as she evacuated and that a man later carried her through the revolving doors. “He put me on his back and carried me through the revolving doors,” she said. “I said, ‘he must be an angel’, but I never found out his name. I was so nervous and shaking, I ran and he disappeared.” She said, “I want to say thank you and give him a hug. Wherever you are, if you see me or you recognize me, thank you so much.”
Randall Rocke said he was on a return flight to the United States over the Atlantic Ocean when the pilot announced that a plane had hit the Twin Towers. He said the pilot “was choking up” and that passengers later heard that multiple planes had hit different parts of the United States. The flight was returned to Europe and landed in Amsterdam, where Rocke said locals treated him and his colleague kindly. “We were not allowed to pay for cab rides, several restaurants refused our attempts to pay for meals, hotel room costs were reduced,” he said. “I’ll never forget that feeling — for one moment in the midst of a horrible tragedy, the world seemingly was with us and ready to support us.”
Elizabeth Nolan said she was working less than a mile from the Twin Towers on Wall Street when the first plane hit and that she called her mother before evacuating. “I thought I was going to die and said goodbye and told her to put my brother on the phone and told him where some of my important things were and to let our mom know everything was fine,” she said. She returned to work less than a week later and said she still remembers a “horrible smell” and missing-person flyers. She said, “I cried going to and coming home from work for months.” Nolan also said she had nosebleeds when she returned to work and later had a complete hysterectomy because of uterine cancer, which she said is documented as 9/11-linked in the World Trade Center program. “Not a day goes by where I don’t think about what I saw and wonder if eventually 9/11 will kill me years later,” she said. She added, “Strangers were consoling one another and neighbors who never got to know one another were checking in and to see if their family members were okay. I hope, in my lifetime, I see a kind unity again without the tragedy attached.”
Catherine Hernandez honored her father, Norberto Hernandez, whose death in the Twin Towers prompted her to become a New York City Police officer. She said he was a pastry sous chef at Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower. “My father was a gentle giant, protected everyone. He didn’t care who you were, if he was there, [you] needed help — he was a protector. And my father loved like no other that I ever met,” she said. “I did 20 years in the New York City Police Department to protect and share my love because it was an honor and a blessing to be raised by such a wonderful man,” she added. Norberto Hernandez is believed by some to be the man seen falling from the burning tower in the AP photos of the attack, though that has been disputed and some say the photo showed Jonathan Briley.
Elba and Tony D’Aiuto, who were working for the Jersey City Police Department on 9/11, said Elba was handed a baby from one of the ferries arriving from Manhattan. The baby was having difficulty breathing, and after she cleared his airway she handed him to an EMT to take away in an ambulance. Twenty-five years later, they were still searching for that baby.
At the Pentagon, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived for the observance ceremony. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine and other officials watched as the flag was unfurled. In New York, the Tribute in Light was displayed, and people paid their respects at the 9/11 Memorial Pools. Firefighters walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, firefighters saluted outside FDNY’s Ten House, and a family finished walking 53 miles in honor of Dennis Cross, a battalion chief who died during 9/11. In Jersey City, a man touched the Empty Sky memorial as the sun rose behind lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center. In Annapolis, Maryland, customers and employees stood for the daily Pledge of Allegiance at Chick & Ruth’s Delly, where the pledge has been recited every morning since 1989. In Boissevain, Manitoba, the colour party moved past the remnants of Twin Towers beams during the 25th Annual 9/11 Memorial Service at the International Peace Garden. In New York’s Oculus, people made a path as two columns of light representing the World Trade Center appeared on the floor. A young boy looked at the Brooklyn 9/11 Wall of Remembrance during the annual Candlelight Ceremony in Coney Island on the eve of the anniversary. Jake Lang spoke during a protest in New York on the anniversary. A child touched a flower next to the reflecting pools during the ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial in New York City.
The State Department posted on the anniversary about rewards of up to $10 million for information on “key al Qaeda leaders.” Its Rewards for Justice Program said, “Bombing U.S. embassies. Attacking U.S. troops. Killing innocent civilians. Help stop these terrorists. Submit your tip.” The department said the post specifically called for information on eight individuals it described as senior leaders with al-Qa’ida, which it said uses Iran as a safe haven to execute violence against the United States and its allies. It said those who submit tips could be eligible for rewards and relocation.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed condolences to the families of those killed and to survivors of the attacks. “It’s a special and important day today, the day of strong people and the day of big tragedy,” he said in a remote interview from Canada with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria at the YES Forum in Kyiv, adding that Ukrainian citizens, including a New York firefighter of Ukrainian descent, were among those who died that day. He said NATO invoked Article 5 after the attacks, the first and only time it has been invoked, and that in the weeks after the attacks NATO agreed to intelligence sharing and increased security for US facilities and those of other allies on US territory. In October 2001, NATO launched its first anti-terror operation, with aircraft helping patrol the skies over the US. Zelensky said, “It was the time when NATO was able to show its strength by applying Article 5, which means that if people are willing to save and preserve their civilization their rights, their freedoms, their values, they have to respond to every enemy, to every terrorist, the evil must be punished,” and added, “That time there was an overwhelmingly worldwide response.” He also said Kyiv has been left to bear the response to Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine largely alone and asked, “Can we compare it to the way in which the world, the whole world united around that tragedy of 9/11, 25 years ago? I think the answer is…it cannot be compared.”
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh told students that the aftermath of 9/11 brought grief and unity. He recalled being a White House attorney in President George W. Bush’s administration and said, “It’s seared in my memory — I don’t forget much from that day — seared in my memory, the Secret Service agents saying, ‘run, sprint,’” describing chaotic scenes as agents evacuated the White House. He also recalled Bush’s ceremonial first pitch weeks later at Game 3 of the World Series and said, “One of the things that comes out of September 11 is this grief and anger and resolution, but also unity. Everyone in Yankee Stadium chanting ‘USA! USA!’” He added, “President Bush put his hand up. That was a little bit of, I think, a message to al-Qaeda — a message to our country as well.”
Rev. Robert Prevost, before becoming Pope Leo XIV, warned against “revenge” in remarks made ten days after 9/11. Speaking on September 21, 2001, at the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, he said, “The violence that the world witnessed in the United States last week is a tragic reminder of a series of problems that are growing throughout our world.” He added, “Hatred and violence will only grow as long as people continue to be forced to live in extreme poverty, oppressed by so many forms of injustice. Every day, 24,000 die in the world because of hunger. All around us, people live in despair and hopelessness.” He urged his religious order to focus on peace and reconciliation: “While many people are looking for revenge, we Augustinians must bear to others an outstanding witness to the gospel values of unity, dialogue, peace, and reconciliation.” He also pointed to the creation of a new province of the Augustinian order in Nigeria, which he described as significant “given the growing tensions between Muslims and Christians in so many parts of the world.”
Across New York, the Pentagon, Shanksville and beyond, the day was wrapped in official ritual, military ceremony and public grief. The names were read. The flags rose. The institutions that failed to protect people, and later managed the story, stood at the center of the frame.