25 years after 9/11, America confronts a loss that still spans generations

Twenty-five years after hijacked planes killed nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, Americans gathered Friday to remember those lost, and the lives still shaped by the tragedy.

At Ground Zero in New York, families read the names of all 2,977 people killed on September 11, 2001, (9/11) along with the six people who died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The ceremony began at 8:46 a.m., the moment American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

Among those gathered were Vice President JD Vance, four former U.S. presidents and relatives of the victims.

But the passage of time was impossible to miss.

Some of the people reading the names were children who had never met the relatives they lost.

Gregory Carafello attended the ceremony to remember his lifelong friend James Martello, who worked for financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost more than 650 employees in the attacks. Carafello was on the 18th floor of the South Tower but escaped.

“Everyone should realize that it was a very bad, catastrophic day for many families,” he said. “These were not warriors. These were people like you and me going to work.”

The attacks also claimed the lives of 184 people at the Pentagon and 40 passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.

Ceremonies were also held at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and at the Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

9/11 Health Effects Continue 25 Years Later

The human cost did not end on September 11. Rescue workers, nearby residents and others were exposed to toxic dust at the World Trade Center site. Many later became sick.

The New York City Fire Department lost 343 members on the day of the attacks. More than 600 additional firefighters have since died from 9/11-related illnesses, according to department figures.

Twenty-six firefighters have died from those illnesses this year alone. For the first time, the anniversary ceremony included a seventh moment of silence to remember those who have died from illnesses linked to the toxic dust.

9/11 Legacy Reaches a New Generation

For families such as the Ogonowskis, the anniversary is also about what future generations will never experience.

Caroline Ogonowski’s father, John, was the captain of Flight 11. She was 14 when he died. Now 39, she had her first baby this year and named him after her father. She recently took her son to her father’s grave.

“This year, there’s this new sadness in knowing that they won’t ever get to know each other,” she said.

“My father will never know his grandson. And my son will never know his grandfather.”

Ogonowski said families have a duty to teach future generations what happened and who the victims were.

The attacks also reshaped U.S. foreign policy, leading to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and influencing American views on national security.

At home, the aftermath brought a rise in prejudice and hate crimes against Muslim Americans and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries. Polls have found that September 11 continues to affect Americans’ views of Muslims.

Twenty-five years later, the anniversary is therefore more than a day of remembrance.

It is a record of nearly 3,000 lives lost, hundreds of firefighters lost in the years afterward, families changed forever and a generation shaped by an event that happened before many of today’s young Americans were born.

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