Americans marked the 24th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on Thursday with solemn ceremonies at the World Trade Center site in New York, at the Pentagon and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, along with volunteer service projects and private remembrances.
At the National September 11 Memorial in lower Manhattan, family members and loved ones read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed and observed moments of silence timed to when hijacked planes struck the twin towers and when the buildings collapsed. Similar readings and moments of silence were held at the Pentagon, where 184 service members and civilians were killed, and at the rural field in Shanksville where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after passengers attempted to retake the aircraft.
Many relatives attended public events while others marked the day privately or through community service. Survivors and family members participating in a range of commemorations described enduring grief and the importance of remembering. Denise Matuza, Jennifer Nilsen and Michelle Pizzo boarded a Staten Island bus for Lower Manhattan wearing T-shirts bearing the names and faces of husbands who died at the World Trade Center; Nilsen said the pain felt "the same way every year." James Lynch, who lost his father, said he and his family planned to attend a ceremony near their New Jersey hometown and later spend the day at the beach.
A nationwide day of service accompanied the remembrances, with volunteers taking part in food and clothing drives, park cleanups and blood donation events. Thousands of volunteers also prepared meals for the needy at charity events in Manhattan in the days leading up to the anniversary.
Security around public memorial events was heightened following the fatal shooting on Wednesday of conservative activist Charlie Kirk while he was speaking at a college in Utah. The shooting prompted additional security measures at the World Trade Center ceremony, authorities said. Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, had planned to attend the Manhattan ceremony but instead were expected to visit with Kirk's family in Salt Lake City. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended the Pentagon service before traveling to the Bronx to attend a New York Yankees game Thursday evening.
At the Shanksville ceremony, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins took part in the reading of names and wreath-laying. The observances combined public ceremony with private acts of remembrance; some survivors said educating younger generations about the attacks remained a priority. Ronald Bucca, whose father was an FDNY fire marshal killed on Sept. 11, said the annual memorials were opportunities to teach resilience and ways to cope with loss.
The attacks carried long-lasting domestic and international consequences. The hijackings and subsequent attacks killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who rushed to the sites. The assaults reshaped U.S. foreign and security policy, leading to the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and a series of related conflicts.
The long-running legal case against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the plot, remains unresolved. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan in 2003 and held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; he has not been tried. Federal and local authorities have also spent billions of dollars on health care and compensation programs for tens of thousands of people exposed to toxic dust from the collapsing towers. More than 140,000 people remain enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify conditions that could be linked to hazardous materials from the site.
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum at Ground Zero—where two large reflecting pools mark the footprints of the former towers—remains operated by a public charity now chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Trump administration has discussed changes that could give the federal government control of the memorial plaza and underground museum and has suggested designating the site as a national monument.
As ceremonies concluded, many attendees and volunteers underscored a shared desire to remember the victims and to pass on the memory to younger Americans. Officials urged continued participation in service projects and remembrance activities as communities marked the anniversary with both public ritual and private reflection.