Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum read 2,983 names aloud at a private family ceremony on Friday, 11 September 2026. It was held on the Memorial plaza at 180 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan. The plaza stayed shut to the public through the morning and was due to reopen in the afternoon.

Those names cover the 2,977 people killed on 11 September 2001, not counting the 19 hijackers. They also include six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on 26 February 1993. The 2001 attacks hit the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 went down.

Four planes, one morning

Four airliners were hijacked that morning. All the times here are Eastern Time on 11 September 2001, from National Park Service and memorial records.

Derek Jensen (Tysto) / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

American Airlines Flight 11 left Boston Logan International Airport for Los Angeles at 7:59 a.m. It was a Boeing 767 with 76 passengers and 11 crew, not counting the five hijackers. It hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center between floors 93 and 99 at 8:46 a.m. The North Tower's roof stood about 417 metres high.

United Airlines Flight 175 also left Boston for Los Angeles, at 8:14 a.m. It was another Boeing 767, with 51 passengers and 9 crew, again not counting five hijackers. It hit the South Tower between floors 77 and 85 at 9:03 a.m. The South Tower's roof was about 415 metres high.

American Airlines Flight 77 left Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles at 8:20 a.m. It was a Boeing 757 with 53 passengers and 6 crew, plus five hijackers. It hit the western side of the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m.

United Airlines Flight 93 left Newark Liberty International Airport for San Francisco at 8:42 a.m., after a delay. It was a Boeing 757. The National Park Service says it had 33 passengers and 7 crew on board, 40 victims in all, plus four hijackers. Passengers and crew fought back, and the plane crashed in a field near Shanksville at 10:03 a.m.

The South Tower fell at about 9:59 a.m. The North Tower fell at about 10:28 a.m. World Trade Center Building 7 came down after fires at about 5:20 p.m. It had been evacuated, and no one died when it fell.

The toll

The 2001 death toll is often broken down as more than 2,600 people at the World Trade Center site, 125 at the Pentagon and about 265 people aboard the four planes. That last figure counts everyone on board, hijackers included. The Memorial's own total for the day is 2,977, without the hijackers. Add the six people killed in 1993, whose names are also carved at the site, and you get the 2,983 names read on Friday.

The Fire Department of the City of New York lost 343 firefighters on 11 September 2001.

Seven silences and a livestream

The ceremony paused for six moments of silence, each timed to the morning's events: when each tower was hit, when each tower fell, when the Pentagon was attacked and when Flight 93 crashed. A seventh silence came after the names were read. It was for people who've since died from illnesses linked to September 11.

Anyone outside the closed plaza could watch the livestream at 911memorial.org/live. Gothamist reported the plaza would reopen around 3 p.m., once the family ceremony was over and Tribute in Light preparations allowed.

Tribute in Light, two beams of light shining straight up from near the site, was back again. Disney and ABC scheduled "9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan" for 8 p.m. Eastern Time, hosted by David Muir, Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer, according to the Memorial's announcement.

Three places of remembrance

The Memorial's twin reflecting pools each cover nearly an acre and sit in the footprints of the Twin Towers. The Memorial calls them the largest man-made waterfalls in North America. The pools and the plaza around them are the main outdoor site for each year's remembrance, and the Museum sits indoors at the same address.

At the Pentagon, remembrance centres on the 9:37 a.m. strike on the western side and the 125 people killed inside the building. That's the same building at the centre of a recent oil deal. In Shanksville, the Flight 93 National Memorial marks where the plane came down and honours what its passengers and crew did. New York, Arlington and Shanksville are still the three places where America gathers every year.

The Memorial's Never Forget Fund pays for teaching people who didn't live through the day as adults. The Memorial has said that roughly 100 million Americans are too young to remember the attacks.

The bottom line

Friday's ceremony didn't change the record. It read it aloud. That's 2,977 people killed on 11 September 2001, without the 19 hijackers, 2,983 names once the 1993 victims are added, and 343 New York firefighters lost. Twenty-five years on, the names, the silences and the twin beams of light still carry the day. For more on how Washington is thinking about service and the military now, read about Trump's order on a US Space Academy.

Sources

National Park Service, Flight 93 passengers and crew. The 33 passengers and 7 crew on board, 40 victims in all.