Bronx communities mark 25 years since 9/11 with local memorials
Every year, families, firefighters, police officers, veterans, elected leaders and neighbors meet for a reading of the names. It is a promise to keep their memories and stories alive.
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Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, communities across the Bronx are coming together to remember the people who were killed and those who stepped up to help.
Children from P.S. 108 opened a memorial ceremony Friday at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi with song. None of them was alive when the attacks happened, but their voices helped carry the memory of that day into a new generation.
Inside Jacobi’s 9/11 Memorial Garden, names were read aloud. After, attendees stepped forward and placed flowers at the memorial.
The ceremony also honored Jacobi workers who prepared to treat patients as the scale of the emergency became clear.
In video testimonials shared ahead of the ceremony, staff members reflected on what they saw and experienced that morning.
Christopher Fugazy, a senior associate executive director at Jacobi, remembered seeing smoke as he traveled on the Hutchinson River Parkway.
“I could see smoke billowing away from the city from the Hutch,” Fugazy said. “I arrived in the executive office, and we were already in full disaster mode.”
For attendee Irene Estrada, the connection to that day is something she can still hold in her hand. Estrada brought a small stone she said came from the remains of the World Trade Center towers.
She said the stone is a reminder that people should not simply move on from Sept. 11, but continue remembering what happened and the lives that were changed.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark told those gathered that the focus should not only be on how people died, but also on how they lived.
“It was a terrible, terrible day and tragedy in the history of this country and this borough,” Clark said, noting that the Bronx lost 144 people.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said she believes Sept. 11 should become a national holiday.
“I don’t feel comfortable doing anything on 9/11 other than honoring the men and women who sacrificed — the heroes and sheroes,” Gibson said.
Remembrance events are continuing across the borough.
The Throggs Neck community will gather at 7 p.m. Friday at its neighborhood memorial near East Tremont Avenue and the Cross Bronx Expressway service road, beside FDNY Engine 72.
The memorial bears the names of 15 people from the community who were killed on Sept. 11, 2001. It was recently refreshed, with the stone repainted and its lighting restored.
Gibson will also hold a remembrance event Monday, Sept. 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lou Gehrig Plaza.
