Remembering 9/11, Sixteen Years Later

NEW YORK, Sept. 10 - “I was in high school, I was in gym class. I remember hearing the first crash and thinking it was a truck crashing outside,” Staten Island native Mario Belluomo remembers as he casts his mind back to the events of 16 years ago. Hours later, he learned the news that two airliners had crashed into the World Trade Center towers, another into the Pentagon and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania in the most lethal terrorist attack to ever occur on US soil.

The following days in New York were described by Belluomo as “silent. Everyone was glued to their TVs.”

Nearly two decades later, inspired by the events of that day, Belluomo is an officer in the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) counterterrorism unit. He said he enjoys working as security at the memorial.

“I like the memorials. I think they brought new life to the area,” he said during a visit to the site on the anniversary. It's something that affected every American so it's a very powerful place.”

Many gathered at the memorial in the days before the 16th anniversary. One of these visitors, Leah Berkevile of Cleveland, Ohio, visited the memorial 10 years ago when the holes for the memorial fountains had just been dug. Now she wanted to come back to see the completed monuments and to commemorate the anniversary. “It's really beautiful, it just shows that after an event like this we really came together.”

To memorialize the 16th anniversary of the attacks, starting at 8:46 am, a ceremony in which the names of the victims of the attacks will be read and four moments of silence will be taken to commemorate when each of the towers were struck and when each tower fell. The ceremony is open only to the families of victims but will be livestreamed on the 9/11 memorials website.

Additionally, the Tribute in Light, in which two beams of light reaching four miles in the air occupy the void where the towers once stood, will remain lit from sunset to sunrise Monday night.

Another visitor, Susan Peterson won’t be attending Monday’s events in New York but will watch it on the livestream. Her family in Connecticut also has their own prayer ceremony and moment of silence.

“It’s so sad, seeing all the names, some of them I still recognize from the news. But I think it shows that life goes on and were showing them were stronger than ever.”