25 years on, the pain and legacy of September 11 attacks still shape America

Twenty-five years after the deadliest attack on US soil, Americans paused on Friday to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, and to reflect on the consequences of September 11 that continue to reverberate.

In New York, relatives of the victims, many carrying photographs of their loved ones, gathered with Vice President JD Vance and four former US presidents at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.

The ceremony began at 8.46 am ET with a moment of silence marking the instant American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

Soon afterward, relatives began reading the names of the 2,977 people killed in the September 11 attacks and the six who died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The sombre recitation lasts several hours.

Reflecting the passage of time, some of those reading the names were children who had never met the relatives they lost in 2001.

Further moments of silence marked the crashes of the other three aircraft and the collapse of the two towers. For the first time, a seventh silence was planned to honour the thousands who later died from illnesses linked to the toxic dust that hung over the area for months.

Gregory Carafello attended the ceremony to honour his lifelong friend James Martello, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial firm that lost more than 650 employees in the attacks. Carafello was on the 18th floor of the South Tower but managed to escape.

“Everyone should realise 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.”

At the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building’s western side and killed 184 people, President Donald Trump recounted the stories of some of those who died. They included a woman pregnant with her first child, a family of four travelling to Australia and three sixth-graders on a field trip.

Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also used their speeches to defend the war against Iran, arguing that military action was necessary to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“We salute our first responders and law enforcement, and we love them,” Trump said. “And we salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon.”

Mourners also gathered in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where passengers brought down United Airlines Flight 93, one of the four hijacked aircraft, before it could reach its intended target in Washington. GENERATIONAL PAIN

The attacks shaped generations of Americans who witnessed them or grew up in their aftermath, influencing US foreign policy, domestic politics and public attitudes towards security.

For the victims’ families and friends, first responders and rescue workers, however, the anniversary remained above all a tribute to those killed on a clear blue morning a quarter of a century ago.

Caroline Ogonowski’s father, John, was the captain of Flight 11, which left Boston 47 minutes before crashing into the North Tower.

Ogonowski, now 39, had her first child this year and named him after her father. She took him to her father’s grave last week and attended a memorial ceremony in Boston on Friday.

“This year, there’s this new sadness in knowing that they won’t ever get to know each other,” said Ogonowski, who has worked in disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.

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

She said future generations must continue to be taught about the attacks, the people who died and how the country responded. LASTING LEGACY

An entire generation has grown up since 2001 with no memory of the attacks, even though their consequences have shaped their lives.

September 11 triggered the “war on terror” and led to the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. The prolonged conflicts later generated a public backlash that helped fuel Trump’s political rise as he promised to avoid new foreign entanglements, a pledge now being tested by the Iran war.

The attacks initially produced a wave of solidarity and patriotism across the United States. They also led to increased prejudice and hate crimes targeting Muslim Americans and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.

Polls have found that September 11 continues to influence American perceptions of Muslims. Zohran Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor, rejected calls from some Republicans to stay away from Friday’s ceremony.

The toll extended far beyond those killed on the day of the attacks. Rescue workers who spent weeks or months at Ground Zero, along with nearby residents and others exposed to toxic air, developed serious illnesses that later proved fatal.

The New York City Fire Department lost 343 members on September 11. Since then, more than 600 additional firefighters, including retirees who participated in the rescue operation, have died from illnesses linked to the attacks, according to department figures.- EndsPublished By: Aprameya RaoPublished On: Sep 11, 2026 23:37 IST