NEW YORK (WABC) — The National Memorial to the September 11th Attacks & Museum hosts its annual remembrance ceremony to mark the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks and remembers the 2,983 men, women and children killed aboard Flight 93 in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, as well as those killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993.

Eyewitness News will be covering the memorial service for the victims live. Bill Ritter will again anchor our coverage on Channel 7 and stream on all of our ABC7NY platforms.

The September 11 memorial service on Wednesday is aimed at the families of the victims, who, as always, are invited to participate in the reading of the names.

ALSO READ | 9/11: WABC’s 5 p.m. newscast on the day of the 2001 attacks in New York City

Organizers said the main focus of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum continues to host its annual memorial ceremony, where family members gather on Memorial Plaza to remember their loved ones.

Throughout the ceremony, there will be six minutes of silence to commemorate the moments when each of the World Trade Center towers was struck and collapsed, as well as the corresponding moments of the attack on the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93.

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EVENT SCHEDULE
-8:30 a.m. – Program starts
-8:46 a.m. – Minute of silence (time of remembrance when AA Flight 11 hit the North Tower)
– The families of the victims of the 2001 and 1993 attacks begin reading out the names in pairs.
-9:03 a.m. – Minute of silence (minute of remembrance at the time of the impact of UA Flight 175 into the South Tower)
-The reading of the names continues
-9:37 a.m. – Minute of silence (minute of remembrance at the time of the impact of AA Flight 77 into the Pentagon)
-The reading of the names continues
-9:59 a.m. – Minute of silence (commemoration of the collapse of the South Tower)
-The reading of the names continues
-10:03 a.m. – Minute of silence (minute of remembrance at the time of the crash of UA Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania)
-The reading of the names continues
-10:28 a.m. – Minute of silence (commemoration of the collapse of the North Tower)
– The reading of names will continue until completion

A complete list of the names of the 2,983 victims of the 2001 World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Flight 93 attacks, as well as the victims of the 1993 WTC bombing whose names are engraved on the memorial, can be found on the memorial’s website.

Biden, Harris, Trump and other dignitaries attend the ceremony

After their heated debate, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had a much more serious moment as they joined President Joe Biden and other dignitaries in commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The second handshake between Harris and Trump in less than 24 hours made the ceremony a temporary flashpoint for the campaign, but it is meant to be free of politics. There are no speeches, just the solemn recitation of names, punctuated by the ringing of a bell that recalls the days when planes flew into the World Trade Center and the towers collapsed.

The presence of Biden, Harris, Trump and JD Vance created extraordinary security measures at what was already a symbolic destination. Some of these security measures and road closures were lifted after the Secret Service guards left.

The families of those killed hold photographs of their loved ones, lay flowers next to their names at the September 11 memorial and make rubbings of the names engraved on the parapets surrounding the pools.

Many of the names were read out by a generation of children who never knew the people killed in the attack personally – instead they share memories preserved through family lore.

READ ALSO | September 11: Remembering Don DiFranco, WABC engineer killed on 9/11

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