A massive light show took place over New York Harbor on Wednesday evening as part of memorial events marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 2,977 drones simultaneously rose into the sky and formed the life-size outline of the World Trade Center Twin Towers. Each of the drones symbolized one of the victims of the tragedy.
The installation was called “2977 lights over New York Harbor.” To create the show, artists and producers worked together with survivors of the terrorist attack, relatives of the victims and the first rescuers who found themselves at the scene of the tragedy 24 years ago. Footage from the event shows hundreds of points of light gradually forming into the recognizable silhouettes of the two towers, illuminating the night sky over the water.
The drone show took place at the same time as New York’s long-established “Tribute in Light” tradition – two columns of light that form 88 powerful spotlights aimed at the sky, following the contours of the collapsed towers. The installation first appeared as a temporary memorial in 2002, a year after the tragedy, and then became an annual tradition organized by the Municipal Art Society of New York.
On the anniversary, national flags were flown at half-mast throughout the United States as a sign of mourning. The country remembers the events of September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners. Two of them were aimed at the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the third crashed into the Pentagon building in Washington. A fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to wrest control from the hijackers.
The United States Congress officially established September 11 as Patriot Day, a national day of service and remembrance observed annually.
