Photos by Rosemary McGinn.
By Rosemary McGinn
We take 9/11 personally around here, near the Fireman’s Memorial on upper Riverside Drive, at the foot of West 100th Street. (Yes, it’s fireMAN, the sign says so.) Every year on September 11, neighborhood streets and subways are flooded with firefighters from all over. We can hear the bagpipes from our living room windows.
The ceremony is set at the imposing, solemn memorial with hundreds of U.S. flags arrayed around it – honoring those 343 lost that day, and the more than 350 who have died since from 9/11-related illnesses. A special unit of volunteers lines up in long ranks before filling the space before the memorial.
As the morning wears on, a moment of silence is observed at each of the times a plane flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There is no speechifying. Rather, the names of all FDNY members lost to 9/11 are read, along with their job titles and posts…. not all the victims, just the firefighters and their comrades such as EMS personnel. The traditional bell-ringing follows each.
The memorial itself is one of New York’s most dramatic and moving, with a large brass relief showing firefighters rushing to a fire with a horse-drawn carriage. In fact, there’s a special plaque dedicated by the ASPCA to honor the many horses who gave their lives trying to help with firefighting. There’s also a beautiful “old man winter” fountain, which was finally just turned on for the season.
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