This Friday, Sept. 11, will be an emotional day, as several Bronx communities will gather to honor the victims and first responders who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
As the borough, city, country and the world prepares to acknowledge the 25-year anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, local federal departments, non-profit organizations and emergency units across the Bronx will host memorial events to honor the victims, recognize the heroism of first responders and everyday citizens who risked their lives to save others.
One of the borough’s many 9/11 annual tribute events, the ‘Freedom is Not Free’ 9/11 memorial ceremony, is hosted by the Hutchinson Metro Center (HMC), located in the Pelham Bay and Morris Park neighborhoods.
However, the annual memorial event, which takes place next to HMC’s ‘Freedom is Not Free’ 9/11 memorial, located next to the Marriott Residence Inn parking lot at 1776 Eastchester Road, will not take place this year.
According to HMC’s property management company Simone Development, the event will not be held due to current nearby construction of the Metro North’s Morris Park station.
Constructed and officially unveiled in 2017, the memorial honors the 143 Bronx residents and victims who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 attacks. The memorial design features a large bronze eagle with a six-foot wingspan which holds an authentic steel beam which was recovered from the World Trade Center site.
NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi and North Central Bronx will host a “Remembering 9/11: 25 Years of Remembrance, Resilience and Unity” memorial tribute to commemorate the anniversary, which begins at 8:30 a.m. on Friday morning.
Visitors are encouraged to arrive between 8:00 and 8:15 a.m. near the standing Sept. 11 memorial in the Jacobi Memorial Garden, which was curated in 2004 and is adjacent to the Jacobi Staff Residence (Building 2) on the Jacobi campus located at 1400 Pelham Parkway South in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx.
This event, which includes a SUNY Maritime Color Guard and a school choir from P.S. 108, will also include a reading of the names of the victims.
According to a recent post on the NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi | North Central Bronx Facebook page, the memorial tribute will be held to honor people who were lost, remember the bravery of first responders and reflect on the city’s enduring resilience.
“We wanted to make this event appropriate but also uplifting for the families of the victims,” NYC Health + Hospitals public affairs director John Doyle told the Bronx Times.
Doyle added the 20-year anniversary of the tragedy in 2021 did not present an opportunity to be commemorated properly, with the COVID-19 pandemic still fully in effect at the time.
The annual Throggs Neck FDNY 9/11 memorial ceremony will also be next to the site of the Engine 72 fire station memorial, located next to 3929 E. Tremont Avenue, on Friday at 7 p.m.
The event will be attended by FDNY firefighters of the nearby Engine 72, NYPD police officers from the 45th Precinct and local elected officials who will pay their respects to the 9/11 victims.
Members of Local American Legion posts, who also help organize and participate in 9/11 community remembrances, processions, and wreath-laying ceremonies will also be in attendance.
State Senator Nathalia Fernandez, who represents NYS Senate District 34 and several east Bronx neighborhoods, will be present at the Throggs Neck memorial ceremony Friday night along with other 9/11 tribute events in Westchester County during the day.
“Sept. 11 still lives in the hearts of New Yorkers, including so many families in my district who carry the memory of loved ones, neighbors and first responders who experienced that day first hand,” Fernandez said.
Senator Fernandez added these memorials are important “because they are reminders of the extraordinary courage shown in the face of unimaginable uncertainty and of the heroes who still walk among us.”
Along with the Bronx County Supreme Court, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson and her office will also host its annual 9/11 Day of Remembrance memorial event next week to acknowledge the anniversary .
For this event, first responders, elected officials and local residents will gather at Lou Gehrig Plaza at 161st Street between Walton Avenue and Grand Concourse to acknowledge the late victims and first responders who perished on 9/11.
The event will be on Monday, Sept. 14 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Borough President Gibson said the 9/11 Day of Remembrance is held annually “to honor the lives we lost, uplift the families forever changed and reflect on the resilience and unity that continue to define [the] borough and city,” according to a post on Borough President Gibson’s Instagram page.
In addition, the New York Yankees and New York Mets will face off in a meaningful Subway Series game at Yankee Stadium to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, beginning the first of a three-game set between the New York’s two MLB teams.
The game is scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. with 25th anniversary ceremonies and tribute events planned to take place beforehand. Gates typically open two hours prior to the first pitch.
Players from both teams traditionally sport NYPD and FDNY caps during pregame ceremonies to honor the victims and first responders.
Among the several connections between the Bronx and 9/11, the Van Cortlandt Park Nursery also served as the temporary home for a Callery pear tree, also known as the ’Survivor Tree’, which was pulled from the World Trade Center rubble and put in the care of NYC Department of Parks and Recreation.
The tree was eventually nursed back to health before it was returned to the 9/11 Memorial Plaza.
In 2007, Prince Albert II of Monaco donated 3,000 sapling trees to Ferry Point Park to help create the 9/11 Ferry Point Park Memorial Grove to commemorate the victims who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, as previously reported by the Bronx Times.
The ‘living memorial’ site, atop one of the most elevated locations in the borough, overlooks the Manhattan skyline, including the southernmost portion of the skyline where the World Trade Center towers once stood.
Late FDNY firefighter and Throggs Neck resident Michael Lynch, who was permanently assigned to Engine 62 and Ladder 32, was on rotation with Engine 40 in Manhattan when he rushed into the South Tower to save others.
Lynch, who passed away as a result of the South Tower collapse, was survived by his father, Jack Lynch, a retired transit manager who spent six months digging through the Ground Zero rubble in desperate search of his son before finding his remains in March 2002.
On Friday, Sept. 4, a week before the 25-year anniversary of the attacks, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed executive orders which established Sept. 11 as an official local ‘Day of Remembrance and Service’ to honor victims, survivors and first responders, to strengthen emergency response preparedness and to turn tragedy into charitable action through community service and volunteer opportunities.
