Never forget – nj.com – nj.com
By some accounts, it was the biggest shared event in human history.
More than a billion people worldwide watched on television as the terrorist attacks of 9/11 unfolded in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The images of that day — falling towers, dust-covered people, crashing airplanes, stunned leaders — were instantly seared into the collective memory of those who witnessed it from near and far.
So, perhaps it comes as no surprise that there are more than 1,250 monuments and memorials commemorating 9/11 across the world, according to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
They range from the massive waterfalls and reflecting pools on the footprint of the fallen towers in New York City to more intimate memorials in small towns listing the names of the dead. There are also pieces of mangled steel from the Twin Towers mounted in town squares and parks from Jerusalem to Italy to New Zealand and Afghanistan.
In New Jersey, where more than 700 victims of 9/11 lived, the memorials are even more personal. The state’s more than 150 monuments, statues, plaques and gardens serve as a place to remember, mourn and celebrate lost friends and family members who, in many cases, have no grave sites.
As the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks approached, NJ Advance Media photojournalist Aristide Economopoulos spent several weeks visiting large and small 9/11 memorial sites across New Jersey to document how the state remembers a day that should never be forgotten.
In the chaos of 9/11, thousands of people were ferried out of lower Manhattan to Weehawken. That landing site is now home to the Weehawken 9/11 Memorial. Two of 13 surviving tridents that once held up the World Trade Center stand in a reflecting pool as a memorial to those who died and a testament to the unique place the New Jersey waterfront holds in the history of 9/11. “We saw the ferries coming back with people full of soot, full of dust, confused,” Rep. Albio Sires, D-8th Dist., said when the memorial was unveiled in 2011. “Luckily, we had our firemen, our EMS, our volunteers to take care of them.”
The more than 350 search and rescue dogs that spent days sniffing their way through the rubble of the twin towers are remembered at the Essex County Eagle Rock Reservation 9/11 Memorial in West Orange. The army of dogs and their handlers searched for days — but did not find any survivors. “From Daschunds to Golden Retrievers, dogs and their owners, all well-trained for the mission, were stunned by their inability to find a living soul,” reads a plaque next to the 5,000-pound statue.
After the planes hit the twin towers on 9/11, many New Jerseyans headed up to Eagle Rock Reservation on the crest of First Mountain in West Orange to get a sprawling view of the tragedy unfolding in Manhattan. That elevated site was chosen for one of the state’s most dramatic 9/11 memorials. It includes a soaring eagle, a granite wall with the names of more than 3,000 people who died, a sculpture of a girl with a teddy bear in memory of the children who lost loved ones, and tributes to the flight crews, EMS workers and firefighters.
Like many New Jersey municipalities, Howell in Monmouth County built its own memorial for its five residents who died on 9/11. There are five arches for those who died, joined at the top by a Pentagon in honor of those who died in Washington, D.C. Nearby, is a boulder from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and a piece of steel from the World Trade Center.
The new World Trade Center tower in New York City is reflected across the Hudson River in a black granite slab inscribed with the names of Jersey City residents who died on 9/11. The monument is part of a series of memorials on the Exchange Place site that also includes the “Makeshift Memorial” sculpture representing the flowers, hard hats, American flags and teddy bears left at Ground Zero in the days after the attacks.
Clive Ian Thompson, who worked at Euro Brokers in the World Trade Center, made it out of the towers on 9/11 from his office on the 31st floor. But the British-born Summit resident, a dedicated volunteer at the Summit First Aid Squad, stayed behind to help others, his family said. He never made it home. His photo rests on a steel beam from the towers in the lobby of the Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad at a memorial dedicated to Thompson and all the residents of the municipality who died on 9/11. Thompson, who also ran a local carpet cleaning business as a second job, left behind a wife and two young daughters. Those who knew him were not surprised he died trying to help people in a crisis. “He was one of those individuals who was so giving he always put others before himself,” his wife, Lucy Thompson, said shortly after his death.
The Middletown World Trade Center Memorial Gardens in Monmouth County includes a landscaped walking path with individual memorials for the 37 people with ties to the township who died on 9/11. Lt. Corey Cattano, who is stationed at nearby Naval Weapons Station Earle, said he regularly pays his respects to the victims during his quiet morning walks with his dog Jack.
“Memoria,” a sculpture by Rumson native Steve Shaheen, includes two marble pillars — one with an image of a women with tremendous weight bearing down on her and the other with an image of a man stretching toward freedom. The sculpture, which stands in Veterans Memorial Park in Highlands, was chiseled by the artist with the help of members of the community, including some who lost loved ones on 9/11. Wendy Feinberg-Kotula — who lost her husband, firefighter Alan Feinberg — remembered chipping away at the marble with tears forming behind her goggles. “It was a different kind of tears, they were the tears of letting go,” Feinberg-Kotula said in 2011, when the sculpture was unveiled.
New York-born architect Frederic Schwartz designed New Jersey’s official 9/11 memorial — Empty Sky in Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The memorial, named after a Bruce Springsteen song about the empty sky where the towers once stood, includes twin walls with the names of New Jersey’s 9/11 victims etched in the reflective stainless steel. Schwartz, who designed the site with co-creator Jessica Jamroz, said the “halo” that forms inside the memorial when the sun hits it at certain times of the day was unintentional. “To me, it’s a religious experience,” Schwartz said in 2011 of the “halo” illuminating the names on the walls. “For me, that is as if God is trying to tell us he is watching over these people.”
The 60 residents of Union County who died in the 9/11 attacks are remembered at the Union County September 11th Memorial at Echo Lake Park in Mountainside. Two rusted girders from the ruins of the World Trade Center stand at the center of the site inside a five-sided area designed to represent the Pentagon. A large sculpture of an eternal flame was created to represent those who died in the Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania as well as first responders and members of the military who gave their lives.
A bent steel beam from the World Trade Center stands outside Montclair High School in memory of Ronald J. Ruben, who graduated from the school in 1983. Ruben grew up in Montclair and was living in Hoboken when he was killed while working in the south tower for the firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods as vice president of equity trading. When he wasn’t working on Wall Street, the 36 year old was working with his hands, fixing old cars and building furniture. “I know people say this all the time, but he was one of the good guys,” his sister, Leslie Dillon, said after his death. Ruben called both of his sisters as he prepared to leave the towers on 9/11 to say he was fine. But, he never made it home. Ruben and his sisters had already lost both their parents to cancer. He died with tattoos of his parents’ initials — “M.P.” for Marjorie and Peter — over his heart, his sister said.
A painted stone lies on an engraved plaque dedicated to Port Authority Police Officer Kenneth Tietjen, who rushed from his post at a nearby PATH station to help people at the towers on 9/11. Tietjen, a Middletown native who was living in Matawan, is one of 37 victims honored at Middletown’s 9/11 memorial. He grew up riding his moped to local fires with dreams of becoming a firefighter. He eventually became a volunteer firefighter, then a Port Authority officer. On 9/11, he left his post at a PATH station, jumped in a cab, then caught a ride on an emergency vehicle to get to the towers. He helped injured people evacuate from Tower One before grabbing one of the last air packs and running into Tower Two, his family said. “He waved to his partner and went in … Wherever he could be, that’s where he was,” his mother, Janice Tietjen, said shortly after his death.
“Eternal Remembrance,” the 9/11 memorial in Harrison in Hudson County, is made up of steel collected from Ground Zero. “It is with great sadness and heavy hearts, but with a strong resolve and belief, that we, as American citizens, shall never forget the heinous and cowardly act of destruction and carnage that was perpetrated against our nation and all the free world,” reads the marker near the memorial.
The twin towers were a permanent part of the skyline for much of North Jersey. So, on 9/11, residents across the state watched as the towers burned in the distance. In Kearny in Hudson County, students, teachers and staff watched the tragedy unfold from the windows of the local high school. Kearny’s 9/11 Memorial is located at the high school’s track. A small steel beam from the towers stands next to a stone etching of worried faces looking out a school window toward Manhattan. The plaque reads: “The faces on our monument mirror the horror, disbelief, and helplessness upon the faces of the students and teachers as they witnessed the destruction of the Twin Towers.”
Mount Mitchill, a scenic overlook with stunning views of Sandy Hook Bay and New York City, took on new meaning on 9/11 when Monmouth County residents gathered at the site to watch the smoke rising from the Twin Towers. The county chose the hilltop for its 9/11 memorial, which includes a timeline of that day and a statue by local artist Franco Minervini of a soaring eagle holding a real steel beam recovered from the towers in its talons. “This eagle grasps a beam from the World Trade Center. It is a fitting tribute and our way of honoring those who lost their lives that day,” Monmouth County Commissioner Ross Licitra said while announcing plans for a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11 at the site.
Small pieces of the remains of Flight 93, soil from the Pentagon and three large pieces of the World Trade Center are incorporated into the Morris County 9/11 Memorial in Parsippany-Troy Hills. It honors the more than 60 Morris County residents who died in the terrorist attacks. This year, the site will be used for a 20th anniversary remembrance on Sept. 12 with a candle lighting and a reading on the names of those who died. Like many of New Jersey’s memorials, the site will be used “to once again say a prayer and echo our nation’s vow — two decades later — to never forget,” Morris County Commissioner Director Stephen Shaw said.