Essex County 9/11 Ceremony Will Mourn Victims

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County’s annual public 9/11 remembrance ceremony will return to Eagle Rock Reservation for 2018. The solemn ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 11 will mark the 17th anniversary of the tragedies in New York, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania, officials said.

This year’s event will take place at the Eagle Rock September 11th Memorial on Eagle Rock Avenue in West Orange. A brief program with family members who lost a loved one in the tragedies, elected officials and clergy members from diverse religious faiths will be held at 8 a.m. Memorial wreaths will be laid at the monument and a new U.S. flag will be raised. A string quartet will perform reverent selections of music at the memorial site after the ceremony until 2 p.m.

“After the attacks, people spontaneously came to Eagle Rock Reservation to view the tragedy unfold at the Twin Towers and leave cards, letters, photos and flowers in an impromptu memorial in honor of their loved ones,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.

“Our September 11th Memorial is a special place for people to come for solace and comfort because of its unique location and its powerful message of peace and hope,” DiVincenzo said.

• See related article: Montclair Man Identified As 9/11 Victim; Family Gets 'Finality'
• See related article: Remembering 9/11 In Essex County (A Look Back)

According to county officials:

“The Essex County Eagle Rock September 11th Memorial was dedicated in October 2002, just over a year after the attacks. Its many elements pay tribute to the men and women, police officers, firefighters and other first responders who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania and aboard the four airplanes that crashed that day. It was the only 9/11 memorial to list all 3,000 victims’ names until 2011 when the World Trade Center Memorial was dedicated. In 2009, the Essex County 9/11 Memorial was expanded to include a monument honoring the 33 flight crew members aboard the four airplanes that crashed. In 2011, a 7,400-pound steel and concrete artifact from the World Trade Center foundation was installed at the site and a bronze plaque was dedicated to honor emergency medical technicians who responded to Ground Zero and those who provided aid to people returning from New York across the Hudson River. In 2016, the Essex County Search and Rescue Dog Statue was dedicated at the site to commemorate the role that dogs had in the search and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center and Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks.”

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File Photo: Essex County