New York City’s 19th anniversary memorial
of 9/11 attacks will be unlike any other
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
For each of the past 18 years,
thousands have gathered at
the World Trade Center site
to honor the nearly 3,000 souls
who perished in the Sept. 11,
2001 terrorist attacks — but this
year’s memorial will be starkly
different.
The COVID-19 pandemic,
which has impacted and altered
our society in countless ways, will
also change how the city refl ects
on that day of infamy 19 years ago
this Friday. The annual morning
vigil at the National September 11
Memorial and Museum has been
changed to refl ect the current crisis,
and protect those who gather
there from potential infection.
Families of 9/11 victims will
again gather at the site this Sept.
11, but for the fi rst time, the
program will not include a live
reading of the victims’ names.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum
will instead play a recording of
victims’ names, gathered from the
museum’s In Memoriam exhibition,
to honor the memories of
those lost in the tragedy.
Some have bristled with the
change and have insisted that a
live reading go on regardless of
the pandemic.
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to
Towers Foundation, a nonprofi t
dedicated to first responders
and named for a fi refi ghter lost
on 9/11, has organized a live
Deborah Henry remembers cousin Robert McMahon, one of several family members killed on
9-11 at the 18th anniversary of the attack in 2019.
name-reading on Sept. 11 at the
corner of Liberty and Church
streets. Vice President Mike
Pence is expected to participate
in the name-reading ceremony,
which the Siller Foundation
indicated will have 140 masked,
socially-distanced participants.
The official memorial ceremony
at the 9/11 Memorial and
Museum gets underway at 8:30
a.m. Friday at the World Trade
Center, a short distance from the
footprints of the Twin Towers that
collapsed on that tragic morning.
Families of 9/11 victims will be
welcomed to the memorial, but
asked to wear masks and practice
social distancing to protect themselves
from potential COVID-19
infection. As the recording of victims’
names is played, they will be
welcome to fi nd their loved one’s
names on the refl ecting pools, or
sit on one of the many benches
at the site.
Bells will toll at six observed
moments of silence marking the
timeline of the attacks: 8:46 a.m.,
the moment when hijacked American
Airlines Flight 11 crashed into
the North Tower of the World Trade
Center; 9:02 a.m., when hijacked
United Airlines Flight 175 struck
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
the trade center’s South Tower;
9:37 a.m., when hijacked American
Airlines Flight 77 crashed
into the Pentagon; 9:59 a.m., when
the South Tower collapsed; 10:02
a.m., when hijacked United Airlines
Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville,
Pennsylvania; and 10:29 a.m., when
the North Tower collapsed.
Houses of worship across New
York City are encouraged to toll
their bells at 8:46 a.m. to honor
the victims of 9/11.
After the ceremony is completed,
family members will be
welcomed to tour the 9/11 Memorial
Museum, which will reopen
fully to the public on Sept. 12
after nearly six months of closure
due to the pandemic.
“We understand the disappointment
that some within the
9/11 community have expressed
with this year’s change,” the
museum said in a statement.
“Protecting the health and safety
of everyone at the 9/11 Memorial
& Museum is a great responsibility,
and so our decision — as
diffi cult as it was to make — is not
to put families, who have already
gone through so much, potentially
at additional risk, while remaining
fully committed to enabling
all present to hear the names of
their loved ones spoken by family
members in the serene and sacred
setting of the Memorial.”
Shortly after sunset on Sept.
11, the Tribute in Light will return
to the New York City skyline.
Twin beams of light, created by
fl oodlights placed near the World
Trade Center site, will mark the
absence of the World Trade Center’s
Twin Towers.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum
had initially opted in August
to cancel this year’s Tribute in
Light display, fearful of the safety
of those tasked with assembling
it, but reversed course after a
public outcry and the development
of a safety plan.
For more information about
this year’s 9/11 memorial service
in Lower Manhattan, visit 911memorial.
org.
BY MARK HALLUM
The Chambers Street station is now
American with Disabilities Act
compliant with new elevator installations
that took two years to complete
and will take customers to the mezzanine
while ramps will lead to the J and Z train
platforms.
Though the MTA has had a plan in the
2020-2024 capital plan to make nearly
all 472 stations in the subway system
compatible with all riders, without $12
billion federal funding to get the program
back on track, the agency says that
this completion is little more than a spot
treatment.
Funding for this came from the previous
capital plan and the agency is still
A real lift: MTA finishes elevator ADA
accessibility at Chambers Street station
addressing as only about a quarter of
stations are ADA accessible.
“Expanding access to mass transit
throughout the city is a priority for the
MTA,” said Janno Lieber, President of
MTA Construction and Development.
“Projects like the one at Chambers Street
– and the four other station accessibility
projects we have completed in the past fi ve
weeks – are at the center of our broader
work to transform and modernize the
entire subway system, but we can’t achieve
them at scale without major support from
the federal government.”
Chambers Street, which has been in
service for 105 years and always sported a
grungy patina, also received a whole other
set of upgrades from platform renovations
that tightened the gap between trains and
the edge 0f the platform itself to fresh
coats of paint. New LED lighting has
also been installed, according to the MTA.
“When this pandemic ends–and in
time, it will–some 30,000 daily customers
will benefi t from these upgrades
each and every day,” said Sarah Feinberg,
New York City Transit Interim
President. “We will continue working to
expand accessibility because customers
with disabilities deserve nothing less. I
look forward to working with accessibility
advocates to make sure our federal
elected offi cials understand that what’s
at stake is more projects like the one at
Chambers.”
Station facilities and architectural
features will undergo continuous improvement
throughout 2020, the MTA
said, while water mitigation work and
infrastructure improvements to platforms,
fl oors and columns can be expected in
the future.
Schneps Media Sept. 10, 2020 3