New Jersey, Long Island Remember 15th Anniversary Of 9/11 Attacks
JERSEY CITY (CBSNewYork) -- Smaller gatherings are taking place outside lower Manhattan to remember the 9/11 attacks.
In New Jersey, family members will mark the 15th anniversary at the state's official memorial, called "Empty Sky."
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There are 749 names etched into the wall, representing the New Jersey residents killed on 9/11, CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported. Sunday morning, the park became a a reunion for families in mourning, as families and friends searched for the names of their loved ones.
Mourners also boarded a ferry to Lower Manhattan, a gesture symbolic of the hardship New Jersey residents faced on that tragic day.
"The Holland Tunnel was closed, the Lincoln Tunnel was closed -- everything was closed right after the attacks at Ground Zero," John Holl, former Asst. Attorney General said. The New Jersey families could not get across."
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"Port Authority cops went in, and out of the towers numerous times, and there's pictures where they saved people's lives and that's a memory that lasts a lifetime as it is," one New Jersey resident told Doris.
The Empty Sky memorial will be filled this afternoon for a service at 3 p.m.
On Long Island, hundreds of families packed a sunrise memorial service, where they found out their yearly trek will soon have a permanent place, TV 10/55's Long Island Bureau Chief Richard Rose reported.
It featured a new monument that shows a reverse shadow box of the Twin Towers, accompanied by a 35-foot-long mural.
Under grey skies, the ceremony ended with a ray of hope as the town of Hempstead unveiled their rendering of a permanent memorial to be built by next year's anniversary.
When the permanent memorial is opened next year, it will also include the names of the first responders who died from illnesses from working on the pile.
