NEW YORK-At 8:46 am Thursday morning for thousands of people in New York City and the region, time stopped, and silence has been filled with memories of another hot and blue sky, two and a half decades.
Then, in a memorial square near the south of Manhattan, a bell touched, bags of bellows played, and survivors and family members of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11 attacks began reading the names of the dead, while New York’s most solemn annual ritual took place for the 24th time.
Gordon M. Aamoth Jr. Edelmiro Abad. Marie Rose Abad.
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The recitation continued as a cellist melancholy played.
Gary M. Albero. Jon Leslie Albert. Peter Craig Alderman.
The number of victims of the attacks continues to grow: deaths over the years by diseases caused by toxic materials in the air and in the rubbish of the Zero Ground Zero have almost exceeded those that occurred on September 11th.
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Tributes to victims and their families took place all over the city this week, while public security groups and survivor support organizations were preparing to mark their birthday.
While family members read the names of the victims during the Memorial ceremony in New York on Thursday, others present in the crowd held photos of their loved ones and posters with their names. Many people have walked the perimeter of the reflective pools of the world of the World Trade Center, depositing flowers and American flags around the names of the deceased.
On Wednesday afternoon, in a fire barracks near the site, firefighters gathered in front of a memorial wall to draw attention to the cuts in federal health programs for survivors of 11 September and to honor the 409 members of the New York Fire Department who have died of September 11 related diseases, including 39 in the last 12 months. In the initial attacks, 343 firefighters lost their lives.
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“While we are in the shadow of this beautiful monument, I sometimes feel that it overshadows the persistent effects of what happened after that day,” said Lieutenant James Brosi, president of the Fire Department Uniform Association, while beside the wall, which has recorded the names of fallen firefighters.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 24,000 rescuers who worked at the World Trade Center site or the Staten Island debris pile have developed cancer. Until last year, almost 7,000 rescuers and survivors had died for all causes, the agency said.
Other honors were more private. Valentina Lygin, 78, visited World Trade Center square on Wednesday and deposited a flower next to her son’s name, Alexander Lygin, recorded in one of the memorial pools.
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Alexander Lygin was 28 when he died in the North Tower, his mother said. He worked on the 104th floor at a computer programming job and planned to marry that October.
Valentina Lygin recalled that she ran with Brooklyn’s husband to the south of Manhattan that day and was stopped near the World Trade Center. “We just said,” We are here to get our son and take him home, “he recalled. Later, his driver’s license was found in the rubble.
Lygin now lives in North Carolina, but said he visits New York twice a year to honor his son: September 11 and his birthday, January 16.
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“What I want is for people to remember,” she said.
New York has changed, healed, and reconstructed dramatically since 2001 in many ways. The population of the community district that includes southern Manhattan has doubled since 2000. The city – where Islamophobia increased after the 2001 attacks – is about to elect its first Muslim mayor: Zohran Mamdani, a 9 -year -old member when the twin towers fell.
Although candidates often suspend campaigns on September 11 out of respect for the date, their political importance has not gone unnoticed. On Tuesday, former governor Andrew Cuomo held a press conference with Sal Turturici, a firefighter who responded to the attacks and helped recovery efforts. Turturici and his wife supported Cuomo to mayor and criticized Mamdani for their perceived association with streamer Hasan Piker, who has already made insensitive comments about 11 September, which later retracted. (Mamdani appeared on the Piker program in April.)
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Hundreds of elected authorities, members of the victims’ security forces and families gathered outside the September 11 Memorial and Museum, in the shadow of the One World Trade Center before the program began.
Mamdani, who leads the polls, is present at the ceremony. The current mayor, Eric Adams, who seeks reelection, is also present, as is Cuomo, who is in second place in the polls, behind Mamdani.
Kash Patel, FBI’s director, is also present, as is New York Governor Kathy Hochul and two former mayors Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.
There is also a memorial event in the Pentagon, which President Donald Trump and the first lady Melania Trump were scheduled to attend. Curtis Sliwa, a republican candidate for the city, participated in a different ceremony at the Park Tribute in Rockaways, Queens.
Reading the names of the dead in the September 11 Memorial and Museum lasts hours. It is interrupted by five moments of silence, marking the times when each plane crashed – including flight 93 in Pennsylvania – and each tower collapsed.
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