On the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, the ‘Seventh Moment of Silence’ Was Held for the First Time

【Financial News New York=Correspondent Lee Byung-chul】 Twenty-five years ago, at the exact moment when a passenger plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC), the heart of Manhattan fell silent once again.
At 8:46 a.m. on the 11th (local time), the families of victims of the September 11 attacks and citizens gathered at New York’s Lower Manhattan Ground Zero bowed their heads. They were remembering the moment American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower of the WTC on September 11, 2001. Exactly 25 years have passed since the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil in American history. Families holding photographs of their loved ones, Vice President JD Vance, and four former presidents attended the ceremony at Ground Zero.
After the moment of silence, family members read aloud the names of the 2,977 people killed in the 9/11 attacks, one by one. The names of the six victims of the 1993 WTC bombing were also read. The procession of names continued for several hours, carrying with it the passage of 25 years. Some of those reading the names were children who had never met family members who died in 2001.
One scene was added to this year’s memorial ceremony that had not appeared before.
It was “the seventh moment of silence.”
Following moments of silence held at the times when the other three aircraft crashed and the two WTC towers collapsed, a moment of silence was arranged for the first time this year for people who died from illnesses linked to toxic dust after 9/11. The victims of 9/11 are not limited to those who died on that day 25 years ago.
The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) lost 343 firefighters on the day of the attacks. Since then, however, more than 600 firefighters—including retired firefighters who took part in rescue operations at the site—have died from 9/11-related illnesses. Twenty-six people have died this year alone.
The toxic dust generated by the collapse of the WTC covered Lower Manhattan for months. Firefighters, rescue workers, and nearby residents who spent weeks to months conducting rescue and recovery operations at the site suffered from cancer, respiratory diseases, and other illnesses.
The seventh moment of silence, introduced for the first time at the 25th-anniversary ceremony, showed that the number of deaths linked to 9/11 has not yet reached its end.
 

[email protected] Correspondent Lee Byung-chul Reporter