Remembering September 11, Twenty-Five Years On

The Attacks Began Quietly Here

In the year before the attacks, several of the hijackers made this county their cover. Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, who flew the two planes into the World Trade Center, rented aircraft and spent time at the county airport in Lantana, minutes from Lake Worth. Others lived in Delray Beach and its neighboring towns, working out at local gyms and filling prescriptions at a downtown pharmacy. As late as September 8 they were at the Lantana airfield asking an operator about crop dusters.

Nobody here knew until afterward. The attacks were staged in plain sight, in ordinary rented rooms and ordinary flight schools. We remember that part too, with humility, because remembering honestly is part of honoring the day.

What Followed That Fall

The county's connection did not end on the morning itself. In early October a photo editor named Robert Stevens died after opening a letter at the American Media offices in Boca Raton. He was the first American killed in the anthrax attacks that followed, and the county grieved him alongside the rest of that autumn's losses.

On the anniversary we mourn the victims and their families, and the firefighters and police officers who went up the stairs. We honor the men and women who went to war in the years that followed, risking everything so that terror would not reach our shores again. Many of them still carry the cost. And we remember what came next at home. Flags went up on every bridge and every overpass. Strangers stood together at vigils from Boca Raton to Jupiter. The country was more united in those months than most of us have seen it before or since. That unity is as much a part of the anniversary as the grief. Remembering it is a way of keeping it.

A Quarter Century of Remembrance

The county built its remembrance in steel. On the tenth anniversary, Wellington dedicated its Patriot Memorial beside Village Hall, the county's principal September 11 memorial. It holds one of the largest steel beams recovered from the World Trade Center, an eternal flame and the names of the victims in etched glass. Each September the village gathers there with the Sheriff's Office, Fire Rescue and New York police veterans who moved here carrying the day with them. An hour and a half north in Fort Pierce sits the nationally significant National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum. It displays its own piece of Trade Center steel beside the story of the men who answered what came after.

Downtown West Palm Beach carries the most physical act of remembrance. Each September firefighters and neighbors climb the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb at the Northbridge Centre on North Flagler Drive, the equivalent of the towers' 110 stories, many in full gear. The public is welcome to climb or to cheer. Proceeds support Gold Star families and fire academy scholarships.

The town of Palm Beach holds a different place on the anniversary now. With the President in residence at Mar-a-Lago through the season, the world's cameras are often pointed here. When the town lowers its flags on September 11, that act of remembrance reaches an audience far beyond the county.

Remembering

The national observance pauses six times on the morning of September 11. The first pause is the one to keep: 8:46 am, the minute the first plane struck the North Tower. Flags fly at half-staff for Patriot Day, and most local ceremonies begin early enough to hold that first silence together. At many of them the fire bell tolls the service's old signal for a member lost, and in Wellington the names in the glass are there to be read.

Beyond the ceremonies, the ways to mark the day are simple, and marking it privately counts just as much. Fly the flag. Bring your children to a memorial and tell them what you remember. Thank the firefighters and deputies on duty that morning. They stand on the front lines today the way their brothers and sisters did then, and many serve here after careers that began in New York. Support the foundations that serve first responders and military families. The county's calendar carries each year's ceremonies as towns publish them.