New York City will commemorate the September 11, 2001 attacks, commonly referred to as 9/11 today, marking 24years since hijacking planes killed nearly 3,000 people and left a lasting scar on the United States.
Vice President JD Vance is expected to attend the annual memorial at Ground Zero in Manhattan, the site where the World Trade Center’s twin towers once stood.
The ceremonies will also honor the victims of Flight 93, which crashed Pennsylvania after passengers bravely fought back against the hijackers as well as those lost in the attack on the Pentagon.
At 8:46am, the moment Flight 11 struck the North Tower, the city will observe a moment of silence. Church bells will rung throughout New York and families of the victims will read the names of those who perished.
This year’s remembrance takes place amid a politically charged mayoral race, featuring socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdani, former Governor Andrew Cuomo and incumbent mayor Eric Adams.
Traditionally, the city’s mayor attends the memorial, but it remains uncertain which candidates will be present.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted a Muslim and naturalised citizen, Mamdani , labeling him a “communist lunatic”, while a republican lawmaker even suggested he should be deported. Despite this, Mamdani holds a commanding 22-point lead in the latest New York Times/ Siena poll.
Reflecting on the aftermath of the 9/11, Mamdani told “The Times”, “It was horrific day that was also for many New Yorkers the moment at which they were marked an ‘other’, referencing the rise of Islamophobia that followed the attacks”.
The commemoration also arrives during a period of heightened political violence across the nation.
Recent months have seen the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at a campus event, the murder of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota and a firebombing at the Pennsylvania governor’s residence.
Despite these tensions, Thursday’s solemn ceremonies will return to familiar rituals of silence, prayers, and remembrance underscoring the enduring impact of the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil.
