Towers of Darkness Become Towers of Light as 9/11 Heroes Are Honored

By JOHN J. GOLDMAN

March 12, 2002 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK — Moments of silence, pledges that good will overcome evil and twin beams of light piercing the night sky on Monday commemorated the six months since terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.

“We saw the worst of mankind. We saw the face of evil,” New York Gov. George Pataki told an audience, some fighting back tears, who gathered in Battery Park to mark the moment that the first of two jetliners slammed into the twin towers. Pataki pledged that 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11 will remain “a date and a time we will never forget.”

The true remembrance, added New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, “will be in our hearts.”

At ground zero, workers paused briefly to recall the assault on America before resuming the task of removing rubble and searching for bodies. More than 2,800 people died at the site where the buildings collapsed.

Mourners Gather at Other Crash Sites

Similar ceremonies were held Monday in Washington, near where another suicide pilot crashed into the Pentagon, and in western Pennsylvania, where passengers struggling with the hijackers forced a fourth jetliner into a field.

At the United Methodist Church in Shanksville, Pa., hundreds of people took part in a multi-faith service in which candles were lit and the names of the 44 people who perished aboard the plane were read aloud. Church bells tolled to remember the victims of United Airlines Flight 93.

“The first thing they hijacked was our name and our religion,” said Iman Fouad Bayly, representing the Islamic Center of Johnstown, Pa.

Later, about 300 people journeyed to the crash site two miles away. Flowers were placed next to a bronze marker in memory of the dead.

A similar event took place at St. Paul’s Chapel on Broadway in Lower Manhattan, where all of the victims from the trade center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania crash were memorialized.

“This was the worst violation of America in our history,” former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said Monday. He said everyone killed in the attacks--firefighters, police officers, rescue workers “and many, many hidden heroes . . . would want us to lift up our heads very, very high.”

At New York Police Department precincts throughout the city, officers stood at attention and saluted while commanders read aloud the names of 23 of their comrades who were killed.

The World Trade Center dead also included 343 firefighters and 37 police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The New York commemoration came in two parts:

First, on a cloudless morning similar to Sept. 11, officials dedicated a massive sculpture that had been damaged in the attack as a temporary monument. “The Sphere”--a steel and bronze sculpture created in 1971 by artist Fritz Koenig to promote peace through international commerce--was partially crushed by falling debris from the towers.

‘Tribute in Light’ Illuminates Manhattan

Later, when darkness fell, officials gathered again to turn on two huge beams of light that soared into the sky to symbolize the twin towers.

Jessye Norman of the Metropolitan Opera marked the moment by singing “America the Beautiful,” her voice ringing out into the cold, clear night air. Someone in the crowd held up an American flag.

“The lights are going up really high,” said Arthur Leahy, whose brother James, an NYPD officer for almost 10 years, perished at the trade center. “Hopefully, he’ll be looking down from heaven. It’s a beautiful thing, the lights reaching the sky.”

The “Tribute in Light” was switched on by 12-year-old Valerie Webb, whose father, Port Authority Officer Nathaniel Webb, was killed in the attack.

The light display will continue through April 13. Depending on weather conditions, the columns are expected to be visible for at least 20 miles around the trade center complex.

“Look into your heart to remember those that are no longer with us,” Bloomberg urged the crowd at the morning tribute.

“I think they would have wanted us to make a better world. They would have wanted us to show the terrorists that they cannot defeat us.”