The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the World Trade Center Memorial Fund have installed a new memorial at the World Trade Center campus honoring the nearly 90 agency employees who died in the 1993 and 2001 attacks, as well as those sickened or killed by illnesses tied to post-9/11 recovery work.
The memorial sits adjacent to the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at Liberty Park, near the agency’s headquarters at 4 World Trade Center.
Its design draws on an earlier memorial to the 1993 bombing victims that was destroyed when the Twin Towers fell, and incorporates a stainless steel likeness of the Twin Towers originally built by a Port Authority employee at one of the agency’s sign shops as a symbol of hope during the 2001 rescue and recovery effort. The 8-foot steel towers are embossed with a porcelain enamel-coated flag and stand atop a black granite base inscribed with the names of the 84 employees who died on 9/11, encircled by a ring of rose granite bearing the names of the six who died in 1993.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill said the memorial ensures the employees’ sacrifice “is never forgotten and that future generations understand the profound gratitude we have for these heroes.”
The memorial, called the “Port Authority Employee Memorial,” was commissioned by the WTC Memorial Fund, a nonprofit made up largely of current and former agency employees, retirees and labor unions. The fund traces its roots to an annual golf outing established in September 2002 to honor those lost, which grew into a broader effort to fund college scholarships and build a permanent monument. Money for the memorial came from individual donations and the fund’s annual outings at Pebble Creek Golf Course in Colts Neck.
Paul Iannacone, president of the WTC Memorial Fund, said the significance of the memorial cannot be overstated.
“For those of us who worked at the World Trade Center and throughout the authority, it was more than a workplace — it was our home,” he said. “We felt a deep responsibility to honor and never forget our friends, colleagues, and loved ones by creating a permanent memorial on the World Trade Center campus that they deserved.”
Of the 84 Port Authority employees killed on September 11, 37 were members of the Port Authority Police Department and 13 were civilian World Trade Center staff recognized as first responders for their rescue work during the attacks. Six people, including four Port Authority employees and an unborn child, died in the February 26, 1993, bombing, when terrorists detonated a truck bomb in the Twin Towers’ underground parking garage; one of the four employees was a day from starting maternity leave.
The memorial also recognizes agency employees sickened or killed by illnesses linked to recovery work that continued through May 2002. More than 144,000 rescue and recovery workers have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, and officials expect that number to grow as more 9/11-related illnesses emerge.
Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said the effort has taken on added urgency as fewer employees remain who lived through both attacks.
“As the anniversary years tick up, the number of our colleagues who survived both the 1993 and 2001 attacks are starting to dwindle, so we must work harder to keep those memories of our Port Authority family from fading with time,” she said.
The Port Authority’s roughly 8,000-person workforce today includes about 400 employees who were with the agency on 9/11; roughly half the current staff were high-school age or younger at the time of the attacks, and about a third were middle-school age or younger.
The agency has built several remembrance programs to bridge that generational gap, including the Pillars of the Port Authority employee recognition award created in 2016 and a month-long volunteer program, organized each September by the agency’s newest hires, that began in 2008. A memorial garden nearby at Liberty Park was dedicated for the 20th anniversary in 2021, and officials said additional remembrance programs are planned in coming years.
