This year marks 25 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and leaders will gather at the Pentagon to remember the tragedy that Washingtonians grieved and still remember vividly.
Nearly 3,000 people died during the attacks, including 184 people killed when a hijacked plane crashed into the Defense Department headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
An American flag was unfurled on the side of the Pentagon early Friday morning in the same spot where the plane crashed.
Photographer Bob Pugh captured some of the most enduring images from the Pentagon that day. News4’s Megan McGrath spoke with him ahead of the commemoration.
“There is a day before and a day after. And we’re living the day after,” Pugh said. “Twenty-five years later, we are still living the day after.”
President Donald Trump spoke at the Pentagon.
“Today, we renew the sacred oath that we first swore in their names a quarter of a century ago. We will never, ever forget,” he said.
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also reflected.
“Today, we remember the thousands of innocent lives that were tragically taken 25 years ago. And here at the Pentagon, we feel the presence of 184 souls who were lost,” she said. Behind every name that we recite, there is a story, a life that mattered, a future unfulfilled, a void, a vast empty space in the heart of a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a sibling, a colleague or a friend. We come together today to say that they will never be forgotten and to honor their memory.”
Families gathered in New York City at ground zero to remember the thousands of lives lost and read their names aloud. Solemn commemorations also were held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice honored the people killed at the Pentagon 25 years ago: 59 passengers and crew members on board the plane, along with 125 people in the building. News4’s Megan McGrath describes reporting on the attack and how victims and first responders were honored on the 25th anniversary.
‘A day that changes you’
News4 reporter Megan McGrath rushed to the Pentagon after the attack. She had been headed to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to cover security measures after the attack in New York.
“9/11 is always a difficult day for me. I get a little nervous, a little jumpy, a little sad, to be honest. It was a terrifying day,” she said.
McGrath was on I-395 near the Pentagon and suddenly saw a fireball in the sky.
“It literally sucked the air out of our live truck, just for a split second,” she said. “[…] We knew what happened when we saw that fireball. We took the first exit off and just came to the scene and started to report.”
“It was a day that changes you, absolutely,” she said.
