September 16, 2026
Many people watched the solemn ceremonies on TV commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks broadcast Friday from Ground Zero, Shanksville, PA and the Pentagon. The annual reading of names from downtown Manhattan was attended by high profile elected officials including the Mayor and a frozen zone was declared over the area below Canal Street. Other observances took place throughout the country with less fanfare but with no less emotion. The quiet reflection that characterized these events marked a transition from living memory into history, as many of those participating are too young to recall 9/11 or weren’t even born yet.
Here in Inwood, along the path from 218th Sreet and Indian Road going toward the Nature Center, there was a pop up shrine to honor friends and neighbors we lost, public servants who saved other lives while sacrificing their own, and to recall the World’s stunned reaction as expressed through newspaper headlines covering the attack.
Across the Hudson River a few hundred people gathered to look at the Towers of Light and NYC skyline. The memorial lights’ bluish columns, seen from about a mile away, dwarfed the nearby buildings including the Freedom Tower. Within those columns there were sparkling white dots moving randomly up and down and from side to side. A man with a tripod mounted camera and very long lens aimed at the Towers of Light explained what we were seeing. “They’re migrating birds. They’re drawn to the light. Every once in awhile the lights are turned off so the birds can disperse and continue on their way.”
And, sure enough, after about 20 minutes the lights dimmed and then went out completely. The darkness continued for a spell and when the lights came back up, the sparkles were gone. But within minutes they were back, providing an visual echo of those souls who spent their last day on Earth in the World Trade Center towers as they came crashing down. The birds, if that’s what they were, reminded this viewer that every one we lost that day lives on in our heart and thoughts.
View from across the Hudson River.
