The 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks will be commemorated on September 11, 2026, across the United States, with the annual name-reading ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial plaza in Lower Manhattan serving as the national focal point. Family members will read the names of the 2,983 men, women, and children killed in the September 11 attacks and the February 26, 1993, World Trade Center bombing, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Seven moments of silence will be observed throughout the ceremony, and for the first time, a seventh will honor those who have died from 9/11-related illness and injury in the 25 years since the attacks. The Tribute in Light, two columns of blue light visible from up to 60 miles away, will illuminate the Lower Manhattan skyline from dusk to dawn.
Key Takeaways
- The 25th anniversary commemoration ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m. on September 11, 2026, at the 9/11 Memorial plaza in Lower Manhattan, with family members reading the names of 2,983 victims in person.
- Seven moments of silence will be observed for the first time, adding a seventh to honor those who have died from 9/11-related illness since the attacks.
- The Tribute in Light will illuminate the Lower Manhattan skyline from dusk to dawn, projecting two columns of blue light visible from up to 60 miles away.
- Gustavo Dudamel will lead the New York Philharmonic and the U.S. Army Field Band Soldiers’ Chorus in a free concert at PAC NYC at 3:30 p.m., featuring the world premiere of Julia Adolphe’s commissioned work.
- The Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s “Steel Across America” tour has transported an authentic WTC steel beam to communities across the country since May 2026.
- NYC Mayor Mamdani released 170,000 pages of city records related to ground zero air quality and response, settling two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch.
The Name-Reading Ceremony Returns to an In-Person Format for the 25th Anniversary
The morning ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial plaza is reserved for family members of the victims. Access to the plaza begins at 7 a.m. for family members only, with the program commencing at 8:30 a.m. The first moment of silence will be observed at 8:46 a.m., the time American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower. Five additional moments mark the strikes on the South Tower, the Pentagon, the collapse of each tower, and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The new seventh moment of silence, introduced for the 25th anniversary, honors the thousands of first responders, recovery workers, and Lower Manhattan residents and workers who have died from illnesses linked to the toxic exposure at ground zero.
The decision to add a seventh moment of silence reflects the scale of the ongoing health crisis. The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund continues to receive more than 750 new claims per month, a quarter century after the attacks. The World Trade Center Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment for more than 130,000 enrolled responders and survivors, has documented cancers, respiratory illnesses, and mental health conditions at rates that continue to outpace baseline populations. The 25th anniversary is as much about the people still dying from 9/11 as it is about those who died on September 11, 2001.
The Tribute in Light and Commemorations Extend Across the Country
The Tribute in Light, the annual art installation that projects two vertical columns of light from the World Trade Center campus into the night sky, will operate from dusk to dawn on September 11. The installation uses 88 searchlights arranged in two 48-foot squares to approximate the footprint and orientation of the Twin Towers. On clear nights, the beams are visible from more than 60 miles away, making the installation one of the most widely visible public art pieces in the world.
Beyond Lower Manhattan, commemorations will take place at sites across the country. The Pentagon will hold its annual private ceremony for families of the 184 people killed when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building. In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the Flight 93 National Memorial will observe the anniversary with its own ceremony honoring the 40 passengers and crew members who died when the hijacked flight crashed into a field. The National Archives in Riverside, California, will host a free outdoor commemoration featuring keynote remarks by U.S. Army Sergeant Neil Duncan (Ret.), who was 17 during the attacks and subsequently lost both legs to an IED in Afghanistan.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation launched its “Steel Across America” campaign earlier in 2026, transporting an authentic steel beam from the World Trade Center to communities, sporting events, and town squares across the United States from May through September. The tour has become the most geographically distributed element of the 25th anniversary commemoration, creating physical points of connection in communities far from New York, the Pentagon, and Shanksville.
A Free New York Philharmonic Concert at PAC NYC Anchors the Afternoon Program
At 3:30 p.m., Gustavo Dudamel will lead the New York Philharmonic and the Soldiers’ Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band, led by Captain Jac’kel Smalls, in a free concert at the Perelman Performing Arts Center on the World Trade Center campus. The program includes works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Barber, and Villa-Lobos, along with the world premiere of a new work by Julia Adolphe titled “We the Living,” with texts by Safiya Sinclair, commissioned specifically for the 25th anniversary.
The concert takes place at PAC NYC, a venue that did not exist on September 11, 2001, and that represents the cultural dimension of Lower Manhattan’s reconstruction. The performing arts center opened on the World Trade Center campus as part of the decades-long effort to rebuild not just the commercial infrastructure destroyed in the attacks but the civic and cultural life of a neighborhood that had been defined by absence for years after the towers fell. The Perelman Center joins the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, One World Trade Center, and the Oculus transportation hub as anchor institutions of a rebuilt campus that now functions as both a memorial and a working urban center.
The performance is the second event of Dudamel’s inaugural season as the Philharmonic’s Tang Music and Artistic Director, following his opening-night concert at Radio City Music Hall on September 10. Availability for the free concert is limited and seating is first come, first served, with doors opening to 9/11 family members at 11 a.m.
Lower Manhattan’s Transformation Since 2001 Provides the Physical Backdrop for the Anniversary
The 25th anniversary takes place in a Lower Manhattan that bears little physical resemblance to the neighborhood that existed before the attacks, or to the devastation that defined it in the years immediately after. The World Trade Center campus has been rebuilt with One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as its centerpiece. The surrounding blocks have added tens of thousands of residential units, transforming what was once a purely commercial district into a mixed-use neighborhood with a permanent population.
The broader commercial recovery of the area reflects how profoundly the attacks reshaped and ultimately renewed Manhattan’s real estate landscape. Twenty-five years later, Manhattan office leasing has reached its strongest annual pace since 2000, with availability dropping to a six-year low as employers recommit to physical office space in the borough. For a district that lost 13.4 million square feet of office space in a single morning, the recovery is not just an economic statistic but a measure of how a city rebuilt itself around an absence.
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed executive orders ahead of the anniversary designating September 11 as an annual citywide “Day of Remembrance and Service” and modernizing the city’s emergency preparedness policies for the first time since 2007. The administration also released more than 170,000 pages of city records documenting the government’s response to 9/11, including air quality reports, contamination data, and internal correspondence, through a new searchable September 11th Document Portal. The release settled two lawsuits brought by 9/11 Health Watch and was accompanied by a $34 million FY27 budget allocation to create and maintain the portal.
A Generation That Does Not Remember Is Now the Audience for the Story
One of the defining features of the 25th anniversary is that the generational relationship to September 11 has fundamentally shifted. No one currently in elementary or middle school was alive on September 11, 2001. Most high school students have no personal memory of the attacks. The event that reshaped American foreign policy, domestic security architecture, and national identity for a generation is now, for the youngest Americans, a historical event learned from textbooks, documentaries, and the memories of parents and grandparents.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum has expanded its educational programming throughout 2026 in response to that shift. The museum’s annual Institute for Educators, held in July, offered a behind-the-scenes look at its collections and teaching resources. Public programs scheduled throughout the year have brought together historians, policymakers, veterans, clinicians, journalists, and artists to examine the lasting impact of the attacks over a quarter century. The 9/11 Day organization, which coordinates the national day of charitable service on September 11, has positioned the 25th anniversary as a moment to engage a generation that will inherit the legacy of the attacks without having experienced them.
For the families who will stand at the memorial plaza on Thursday morning and read the names of people they lost, the anniversary is not historical. It is personal, immediate, and ongoing. The seventh moment of silence, honoring those still dying from the consequences of that day, ensures that the ceremony acknowledges what the families have always known: September 11 did not end on September 11.
FAQs
What Time Does the 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony Begin?
The 25th anniversary ceremony begins at 8:30 a.m. on September 11, 2026, at the 9/11 Memorial plaza in Lower Manhattan. The first moment of silence is observed at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane struck the North Tower.
Is the Ceremony Open to the Public?
The morning ceremony is reserved for family members of the victims. Public access to the memorial plaza will begin after the ceremony has concluded and security restrictions have been lifted. The Perelman Performing Arts Center will open its doors to families at 11 a.m.
What Is the Tribute in Light?
The Tribute in Light is an annual art installation that projects two columns of blue light from the World Trade Center campus into the night sky, approximating the footprint and orientation of the Twin Towers. It operates from dusk to dawn on September 11 and is visible from up to 60 miles away.
What Is the Free New York Philharmonic Concert?
Gustavo Dudamel will lead the New York Philharmonic and the U.S. Army Field Band Soldiers’ Chorus in a free concert at PAC NYC on the World Trade Center campus at 3:30 p.m. on September 11. The program includes the world premiere of Julia Adolphe’s “We the Living” with texts by Safiya Sinclair.
Why Is There a Seventh Moment of Silence This Year?
For the first time, a seventh moment of silence will be observed after the reading of the names to honor those who have died from 9/11-related illness and injury in the years since the attacks. The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund continues to receive more than 750 new claims per month.
