Twenty-Five Years On, We Read the Names of the Souls Lost on September 11, 2001

The Morning the Sky Fell Silent

At 8:46 on a clear Tuesday morning, a hijacked airliner struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, and the ordinary business of a September day in America ended. What followed over the next hour and forty-two minutes has been counted, mourned, and remembered every year since. This morning, on the 25th anniversary of this tragic terror attack, the count itself is where remembrance begins. Behind every number was a person who had a name, a family, and a morning that should have ended like any other.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum honors the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. Each year the families gather on the Memorial plaza to read the names aloud, one after another.

Memorializing Every Death at Every Site

In New York, the twin reflecting pools now sit where the towers stood, each nearly an acre in size, the names inscribed in bronze on parapets that ring the falling water. On the Memorial, the North Pool carries the names of those lost in the north tower and aboard Flight 11. The South Pool carries those lost in the south tower, the first responders, and the passengers and crew of Flight 175, together with those lost at the Pentagon and aboard Flight 77 and Flight 93.

At the Pentagon, 184 lives were lost. The Pentagon Memorial captures that moment in time at 9:37 a.m. when, in the words of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, 184 lives became intertwined for eternity. Each victim's age and location at the time of the attack are marked by the placement and direction of 184 memorial units, arranged as a timeline of the victims' ages, beginning with the youngest.

In a field outside Shanksville, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, 40 passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93 died when their plane came down at 10:03. As the National Park Service records at the Flight 93 National Memorial, because of the actions of those 40 passengers and crew, the attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted. Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives that day, and among them these forty chose to act. Their names are set on the Wall of Names. Nearby, the Tower of Voices, the world's tallest chime structure, sounds for them in the wind.

The Death Toll That Keeps Climbing

A second death toll has been rising quietly ever since, because responders and neighbors who breathed the dust have kept dying from it. In the aftermath of the attacks, hundreds of thousands of men and women from across the nation and around the world took part in the rescue, recovery, and relief operations in New York City; Arlington, Virginia; and Somerset County, Pennsylvania. At Ground Zero they searched first for victims and then removed nearly two million tons of debris, alongside fires that burned for more than 100 days, leaving those who responded exposed to hazards and toxins that have caused chronic illness and the death of thousands.

The federal World Trade Center Health Program, administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, provides no-cost medical monitoring and treatment for certified 9/11-related conditions to those directly affected in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville. It now serves over 145,000 responders and survivors. The men and women who have since died of those illnesses belong to this day as surely as anyone who died before lunchtime.

This year, marking the twenty-fifth anniversary, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum added a seventh moment of silence to honor them. “The 9/11 attacks caused devastation that extended far beyond that single day,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, Chairman of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. “In the aftermath, the heroism and spirit of our city and nation inspired the world — but over the years, tens of thousands of first responders, construction workers, volunteers, and survivors have become ill and tragically, many have died. As we mark the 25th anniversary, adding this moment of silence ensures that we never forget every life lost on that day and in the years since.”

Dr. Kerry Kelly, former FDNY Chief Medical Officer and a Trustee of the Memorial, saw the toll close up. “These heroes spent the days and months after 9/11 doing critical search, rescue, and recovery work that exposed them to a toxic chemical mix. We’ve lost far too many to cancer, respiratory issues, and other 9/11-related illnesses,” she said. The responder and advocate John Feal, together with Bridget Gormley, whose father, FDNY Fire Fighter William Gormley, died of a 9/11 illness, put it this way: “Long after the smoke cleared and the skyline healed, thousands continued — and continue — to carry the invisible weight of that day within their bodies.”

The Names, and the Silences That Frame Them

Every year the families read the names, and the reading is broken by moments of silence, each marking something particular:

• 8:46 a.m., when Flight 11 struck the North Tower
• 9:03 a.m., when Flight 175 struck the South Tower
• 9:37 a.m., when Flight 77 struck the Pentagon
• 9:59 a.m., when the South Tower fell
• 10:03 a.m., when Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania
• 10:28 a.m., when the North Tower fell

A seventh moment of silence, observed at the close of the reading, now honors those lost to 9/11 health effects, a permanent part of the ceremony going forward. Among the family members who welcomed it was Paula Grant Berry, a Trustee of the Memorial. “For 25 years, this community has carried the memory of those we lost – including my husband, David – with love, devotion, and an unwavering sense of purpose,” she said. “We will never forget those we lost, and we remain steadfast in the sacred work of remembrance.”

One 3-Year-Old Soul Among Them

At the Pentagon Memorial, the memorial runs in order of age, from the youngest victim to the oldest. The youngest was Dana Falkenberg, three years old, who was aboard American Airlines Flight 77 that morning. At the far end of that same timeline stands John D. Yamnicky, 71, a Navy veteran, also aboard Flight 77. A child of three and a man who had worn the uniform of his country, lost on the same aircraft, on the same clear morning, a few feet and a lifetime apart on the Memorial that now holds them both. Remember Dana, who never got to grow up, and you begin to feel the weight the whole count carries.

Where Were You Were Standing?

Some who read this watched it happen and can still tell you exactly where they were standing when the towers came down. Others were not yet born; roughly 100 million Americans have been born since the attacks or were too young to remember them.

This day, 25 years later, asks something of both: that the old carry the memory faithfully, and that the young receive it and keep it. That is why the names are read aloud, why the bells ring, and why the beams of light rise each year over lower Manhattan. America must never forget September 11, 2001, and the souls that were lost that day.