All eyes are on Lower Manhattan Wednesday morning as the city marks 23 years since the Twin Towers fell – killing nearly 3,000 people and changing the country forever.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are all expected to attend the ceremony, the NYPD confirmed, although it’s unclear exactly where they will be.
The appearance comes just hours after Harris and Trump faced off in Pennsylvania in their first debate as presidential candidates.
The annual 9/11 commemoration ceremony will start at 8:30 a.m., as family members of victims gather on Memorial Plaza to read aloud the names of each person who died in the terrorist attack. They also read out the names of those killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Throughout the event, six moments of silence are observed to acknowledge when both World Trade Center towers were struck and fell, the time of the attack on the Pentagon, and the moment when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
A number of streets and tunnels around the Financial District will be closed from 6:45 a.m. to about 10:30 a.m., according to the NYPD:
- The Brooklyn Battery tunnel will be closed in both directions.
- Southbound lanes of the FDR Drive will be closed from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Battery Park Underpass.
- The Battery Park Underpass will be closed in both directions.
- West Street will be closed to the south from Canal Street to the Battery Park Underpass.
- West Street will be closed to the north from the Battery Park Underpass to Barclay Street.
- Barclay Street will be closed from Church Street to West Street.
- Murray Street will be closed from West Street to Greenwich Street.
NYPD officials said the department will be on heightened alert during the ceremony.
The official commemoration ends at 1 p.m. The ceremony can be streamed on local news stations as well as on the 9/11 Memorial and Museum website.