“Essex County Remembers,” a solemn ceremony at the Essex County Eagle Rock September 11th Memorial, will mark the 17th anniversary of the tragedies in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania.
The annual ceremony will be held on Sept. 11 at 8 a.m. in the Essex county Eagle Rock Reservation, West Orange.

“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,” said Essex County Senior Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. “I knew immediately that this was the natural location for a memorial because of the public attraction to this site and the unparalleled view of the World Trade Center from the lookout area. Our Sept. 11 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,” he noted.

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 American flag will be raised. A string quartet will perform reverent selections of music at the memorial site after the ceremony until 2 p.m.

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.