On September 11th, 2001, the United States of America faced a series of unprecedented tragedies. 19 men in the terrorist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four planes with intentions to crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the White House, and Americans still remember where they were when the towers fell.

“If you’ve seen the skyline of Manhattan enough times, your mind kind of paints a picture of where the towers were, and then they were gone, which was just really unbelievable,” Lori Grahn, a New York office worker on 9/11, said.

During this tragedy, Hunterdon County lost 15 members of its community. In total, there were 2,977 casualties that day.

Though most were civilian, 441 first responders lost their lives saving others that day, including 343 firefighters, 37 Port Authority Police Department officers, 23 NYPD officers, and 8 EMT/paramedics. 

“The heroism of that day, that’s really the best of what America has always been,” Grahn said.

Before 9/11 became a tragedy, it was a normal day. People were commuting into the city from all over, expecting the day to be like any other.

“What I really remember about that day initially was just how beautiful it was,” Grahn said. “It was a nice, cool September morning. The sky was crystal clear. It was just this beautiful day.”

At 8:46 a.m. the North Tower was attacked.

“I was across the street at the World Financial Center, and we heard the first explosion,” Supervisor of Student Personnel Services Sandra Morisie said. “We looked out the window and all this flaming debris was dropping. I knew from my father that the darker the smoke, the worse the fire.”

At 9:03 the South Tower was attacked, at 9:59 the South Tower fell and at 10:28 the North Tower fell. Two of New York City’s biggest landmarks were gone.

People scrambled to escape the city. People walked on foot over the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queensboro bridges. Others took trains, though most had no idea where they would end up. A large majority of people escaped on boats in a largely civilian relief effort.

“We were leaving Manhattan, and just seeing the tremendous amount of black smoke, just pouring out of where the towers were, it was like something out of a movie,” Grahn said. “The depth of the blackness, and the amount of it just pouring out and streaming out over the river and the harbor, just trailing away from the city as our train left. It was heartbreaking.”

Ground Zero became a race against the clock. It was a rescue mission, which slowly turned from looking for survivors to looking for remains. Former firefighter for FDNY Battalion 53, and a responder to the scene, Vincent Bulzomi remembers the day vividly.

“Home Depot pulled up with a truck with a couple thousand orange buckets, and we started taking the pile [of rubble] down, a handful at a time,” Bulzomi said. “We would go through it, it would be dumped, someone else would go through it, then we’d put it on a truck, and it was taken to Staten Island where they’d go through it again looking for remains.”

Post-9/11, America would never be the same. Aside from the changes to our national security, Americans began to treat each other differently.

“People were amazingly nice to each other,” TV Media teacher William Gregson, who worked as a broadcaster covering the attacks, said. “It was obviously a big tragedy, but it was a very unifying moment. There were flags all over, there was so much unity and genuine pride. Like, we’re all Americans, we’re all in this together.”

The effects of 9/11 are still being felt across America, and memorials, dedications and museums are still being erected in honor of those this country lost.

“I knew so many firemen that were killed,” Morisie said. “The one unit next to where my father used to work, the whole group got wiped out. These guys went into the trade center with 50 to 100 pounds worth of equipment on their backs and started going up flights of stairs. They were true heroes.”

9/11 was a tragedy, but it showed America how much people cared about each other. Many first responders and civilians sprung into action to save people or die trying.

“The kind of guys I worked with, they had your back,” Bulzomi said. “When it came to doing fire duty, everybody had each other’s back.”

Those who were on the scene, survivors and first-responders alike, faced trauma, both mental and physical.

“I am a physical wreck,” Bulzomi said. “My kidneys are failing, I had to get part of my lung removed, my pancreas has got problems, I have arthritis, I had a couple cancers from it. I woke up each morning, and was alive, I said, ‘thank God’ and went on with my day.”

9/11 is still a difficult event for many people to talk about, even after a quarter century has passed. It is a dark moment in America’s history, but Bulzomi chooses to preserve the memory of those who lost and gave their lives that day.

“I have a poster of all the guys who died in 9/11 by my bed,” Bulzomi said. “And every day, I wake up and I go past it, and I look at it, and I look at the names of the guys I knew. Who I remember, vividly. Guys I worked with. I knew a lot of guys whose sons died in 9/11, and they worked with their fathers, so it’s a constant reminder of what happened.”

According to Gregson, no American alive at the time will ever forget what happened on 9/11. They will never forget where they were when the towers fell, and they will never be able to unsee the billows of smoke rising.

“Every generation has those ‘where were you whens?'” Gregson said. “They’re defining moments, that if you live through, you’re going to know where you are.”

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, a memorial dedication took place on Hilltop Reserve in Raritan Township.

The memorial was announced in April by Hunterdon County Sheriff Fred W. Brown and was designed by Ryan Preston.

“The significance of today is remembering those who lost their lives,” Brown said.

The design of the memorial pays homage to all of the tragedies that occurred that day: two trees symbolizing the twin towers, pentagon-shaped flower boxes, and a field of native plants to commemorate Flight 93, which American citizens crash-landed in Pennsylvania to save the lives of others. The memorial also includes a pavilion and a walking trail.

Perhaps the most significant element of the memorial, its location, tells an important story. In a cloudless sky, visitors can see the New York City skyline where black smoke rose 25 years ago.

“I think Hunterdon County as a whole is going to be able to look at this memorial and never forget about the people from Hunterdon County whose lives were unfortunately lost that day,” Del Val choir teacher Andrew Chojnacki said.

The new memorial aims to honor those who died and give those looking for a spot to remember and grieve a place to do so in Hunterdon County.

“The memorial was the absolute best tribute to those who lost their lives on 9/11,” senior choir member Nathaniel Pescatore said. “I feel that it is one of the most patriotic and truly one of the most remarkable sendoffs to some truly remarkable people, especially the 15 people in Hunterdon County who lost their lives in 9/11.”

The dedication ceremony included the Somerset County Police Pipes and Drums, and the Hunterdon County Bulldogs Marine Corp. League played taps with a tribute from the Hunterdon County Polytech Student Honor Guard.

Two choirs, The Hunterdon Harmonizers and a collection of high school choirs from around Hunterdon County, performed tributes to America. The Hunterdon Harmonizers choir sang a rendition of God Bless America and the student choirs sang Hope Lingers On by Lissa Schneckenburger, arranged by Andrea Ramsey, which was briefly interrupted halfway by a state police helicopter flyover. The choir took a short pause and continued like nothing happened.

“I think it went really well,” Pescatore said. “It was the first and only time performing with the other schools, and I feel such an intricate balance of voices, and even with a helicopter flying by, everything went well.”

Chojnacki was impressed with how well their students blended into the countywide choir.

“I was really happy with what they did, they pulled together a whole piece at the beginning of the school year with not that much time to prepare,” Chojnacki said. “I’m really amazed with the amount of work they put in over the last few weeks. They’ve really risen to the occasion and I was really proud of their performance today.”

Both the memorial and the accompanying dedication ceremony were tributes to what America lost, and how the nation recovered by coming together not only as a city, county or state, but as a country.

“It really felt like the whole county had come together for a unified purpose, and that was really powerful in that moment,” Chojnacki said.

There are plenty of spaces across the country to pay respect to the Americans who lost their lives in these attacks. New Jersey has over 150 memorials around the state, including the free, newly dedicated memorial in Hunterdon County.

“While we’re the most powerful nation on the planet, we can be vulnerable too, and we really need each other to get through these tough times,” Grahn said.

As for the Del Val choir, though their numbers are small, they intend to continue using these opportunities as a chance to grow and display their talent.

“I’m just glad to be doing stuff in the community,” Chojnacki said. “I think it’s so cool that Del Val is going to be a part of what is such a historic county event.”

Though 9/11 is a sensitive subject, survivors continue to share their stories, lest people forget.

“We just really are so lucky to be alive, and we owe it to the people who suffered to make the world a better place,” Morisie said.