September 11th 2026 - Twenty five years since 9/11

September 11, 2026 marks twenty-five years since the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon, and over Shanksville, Pennsylvania. This year the anniversary arrived alongside a records release a quarter-century in the making.

On September 8, ahead of the anniversary, the Mamdani administration opened a public portal containing an initial 170,000 pages of City records on health conditions, air quality, and government's response after the attacks — records that survivors, first responders, and families have sought for years.¹ The release also settled a multi-year legal battle: two lawsuits brought against the City by 9/11 Health Watch over access to the same records.¹

Corporation Counsel Steven Banks, who introduced the portal, acknowledged the long delay directly: "information about the aftermath of September 11th has not been provided to the public."¹ Former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who spent decades pushing for the records' release, put the underlying claim plainly: "Government records about September 11th belong to the people of New York."¹

What the records are expected to show

The portal's first release covers air-quality reports, contamination data, and internal City correspondence. Banks has said the material includes information about carcinogenic materials and other environmental hazards near Ground Zero.² The Council has also secured an independent Department of Investigation review of the records, funded for the first time under a City Charter provision — a push Council Member Gale Brewer said was about learning what officials knew and when.¹

Mayor Mamdani's FY27 budget sets aside $34 million to build and maintain the portal, with additional records to be reviewed, redacted, and posted in the coming months.¹²

The administration also said it will assign dedicated staff at the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and New York City Public Schools to help residents use these records to establish their presence in the WTC Exposure Zone and access two federal programs created under the Zadroga Act: the World Trade Center Health Program and the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.¹

The city's records infrastructure

The new portal sits alongside New York's older public-records apparatus. The Municipal Archives, run by the Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS), already holds an unprocessed accession of missing-person posters, children's artwork, and other material collected from sites like Pier 94 and 49-51 Chambers Street in the months after the attacks — eleven cubic feet of it, dated September 2001 to April 2002.³ DORIS also runs openRECORDS, the City's portal for Freedom of Information Law requests.⁴

Washington: Patriot Day, 2026

In Washington, the White House marked the anniversary the way it has every year since Congress designated September 11 as Patriot Day by joint resolution in 2001: a proclamation, issued this year on September 9, calling for flags to fly at half-staff in honor of the 2,977 victims. It describes a "solemn vow to Never Forget" and calls on the public to observe the day.⁵

Lights over the harbor

On September 9, a drone installation over New York Harbor rebuilt the Twin Towers at full architectural scale in light — 2,977 drones, one for every life lost on 9/11. The free public installation, sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts and produced by Sky Elements, was described by its producers as shaped by the voices of 9/11 families, survivors, and the responder community.

Tribute in Light, and remembrance around the city

Documents on file

Never Again. Never Forget. Remind Others. Learn and Act.