US marks 25 years since the September 11 attacks

The milestone anniversary brought memorial rituals – wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names – and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of US adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.

On September 11 2001, al Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Elsie Caldwell carried a photograph of her son Kenny to the trade centre to hear his name and all the others read aloud on Friday.

The last time she spoke to him, that morning a quarter of a century ago, he called to say “Mum, I just want to let you know that I love you”, recalled Ms Caldwell, one of many relatives of victims whose remains never were recovered.

The attacks brought down the World Trade Centre’s twin towers, symbols of US economic power and among the tallest buildings on Earth, and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the US military’s fortress-like headquarters near Washington.

The fourth plane was heading for the nation’s capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

President Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week: “In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after.

Mr Trump, who was in New York on September 11 and has often recounted his memories, attended the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony on Friday.

Former presidents George W. Bush, who was in office on 9/11, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and current vice president JD Vance convened for the observance at the National September 11 Memorial in New York.

Other administration officials were at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, including beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium and a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial.

Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the New York commemoration, where victims’ relatives read aloud the long list of names and thanked emergency responders and the military.

Many of those speaking were too young to have met the lost loved ones to whom they paid tribute.

Joann Massaroli watched, wearing a pin with an image of her brother Michael’s face.

“The clock keeps on ticking, but I think for the families, it just takes you right back to the day,” she said.

It has long been punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline and this year organisers added another moment to honour people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses.

Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.

It is a reminder of how the attacks’ long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the US and beyond.

The US-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – the latter Washington’s longest war – and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons.

The US found and killed al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.

The attacks changed US air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom.

The department of homeland security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.

So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something”.

September 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies.

Casey Kloepfer, 29, became a New York police officer this June. He was four when his father, officer Ronald Kloepfer, was killed at the trade centre.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honour him and be the best police officer I can,” Mr Kloepfer, who wears his father’s badge number, said this week.

Amid the calls to service and for national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.

In the quarter of a century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor.

Yet he faced some criticism for attending the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani also inveighed against Mr Mamdani attending, though the two shook hands on Friday as they and other officials awaited the start of the observance.

Mr Mamdani, 34, said earlier this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims’ families, emergency services and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror”.

He was a primary school pupil in New York on 9/11.

September 11 is not a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organisation 9/11 Day with his friend David Paine.

The group helps people find meal-packing and other volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9.11am on Friday.

Instead, they simply displayed the time.