NEW YORK, United States — Americans on Friday marked 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, with families of victims, political leaders and survivors gathering at memorial sites across the United States to remember the nearly 3,000 people killed.
Ceremonies were held in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, marking a quarter of a century since four hijacked passenger planes were used in an attack that profoundly changed American society, foreign policy and attitudes towards security.
At Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, relatives of victims gathered alongside Vice President JD Vance and four former US presidents. 
The New York ceremony began at 8:46 a.m. local time with a moment of silence marking the time American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Family members then read the names of the 2,977 people who died in the September 11 attacks, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The reading lasted about four hours.
Some of those reading the names were children who were born after the attacks and never personally knew the relatives they were remembering.
Additional moments of silence marked the crashes of the other three hijacked aircraft and the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
This year’s ceremony also included a moment recognising people who have died in the years since the attacks after suffering illnesses linked to exposure to toxic dust at the sites.
Gregory Carafello attended the New York ceremony to remember his lifelong friend James Martello, who worked for financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald.
Carafello had been on the 18th floor of the South Tower when the attacks occurred but managed to evacuate. Cantor Fitzgerald lost more than 650 employees.
“These were not warriors. These were people like you and me going to work,” Carafello said.
At the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, President Donald Trump recalled individual stories of passengers who died when American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building, including a pregnant woman, a family travelling to Australia and three sixth grade pupils on a school trip.
Trump and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also used their remarks to discuss the administration’s position on the war involving Iran.
At Shanksville, Pennsylvania, mourners gathered at the site where passengers and crew members aboard United Airlines Flight 93 resisted the hijackers before the aircraft crashed. The plane had been heading towards Washington.
A generation shaped by 9/11
The anniversary has brought renewed reflection on how the attacks affected generations of Americans who experienced the events directly and those who grew up in their aftermath.
The attacks helped reshape US foreign policy and led to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the broader campaign known as the “war on terror”.
The period also influenced domestic politics, national security policies and public attitudes towards immigration and Muslim communities.
Muslim Americans and people from Muslim majority countries experienced increased prejudice and hate crimes following the attacks. The impact of September 11 continues to feature in debates about American politics and national identity.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, attended the anniversary events despite calls from some Republicans for him not to participate.
For families who lost relatives, however, the anniversary remains primarily about remembering those who died and the lives that continued without them.
Caroline Ogonowski, whose father John was the captain of Flight 11, attended a memorial ceremony in Boston.
Ogonowski, now 39, became a mother this year and named her son after her father. She has spoken about the significance of raising a child who will never meet the grandfather after whom he was named.
She said the responsibility of remembering the victims extends to future generations and includes teaching young people about the people who died and the way Americans responded to the tragedy.
The long term human cost
The deaths associated with September 11 did not end on the day of the attacks.
Thousands of rescue workers, emergency personnel and other people who were exposed to hazardous conditions at the sites later developed illnesses.
The New York City Fire Department lost 343 members on September 11. Department figures show that more than 600 additional firefighters, including retired members involved in the rescue operation, have since died from illnesses linked to the attacks.
Twenty six of those deaths have occurred during 2026.
The anniversary therefore carries two dimensions for many Americans: remembering those who died in 2001 and recognising the people who have lost their lives in the years since.
Remembering 9/11 without experiencing it
A generation has now grown up with no personal memory of September 11.
People born around or after 2001 have instead learned about the attacks through their parents, teachers, documentaries, the internet, books and the wars and political changes that followed.
Tyler Yezermanski of New Haven, Connecticut, was born six months before the attacks. He first learned about September 11 at school and later served in Afghanistan in 2021 during the final months of the US war there.
New York resident Emani Labrew, who was born in 2001, recalled learning about the attacks through a YouTube video and conversations with her mother. Growing up in the city where the attacks occurred shaped her perception of its vulnerability and deepened her empathy for those who experienced the events directly.
Utkarsh Bhatnagar, born in 2000 and raised in New Delhi before moving to Germany, said he came to understand September 11 largely through documentaries and later recognised its lasting impact on aviation, security and international politics.
Jack Johnson of Chicago, born in 2001, described September 11 as a defining event of the 21st century in the United States, linking it to political division, fear and changes in American society.
For others, the attacks became part of the background of childhood rather than a personal memory.
Paige McCusker of Altoona, Pennsylvania, born in 2003, said September 11 was simply part of the world she grew up in. Her understanding developed further at school when a teacher showed pupils footage of the attacks.
Avery Turner of Louisville, Kentucky, born in 2007, said his generation inherited an America permanently changed by the attacks, including changes to the country’s relationship with the rest of the world.
The impact was also felt far beyond the United States.
Jasmine Corliss of Napier, New Zealand, born in 1995, recalled gradually learning about September 11 before studying the attacks more closely in high school. She also remembered her father being called into work after the attacks to help protect local water sources, demonstrating how security concerns generated by the attacks reached communities thousands of kilometres from the United States.
