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The Tribute in Light was a temporary art installation of 88 searchlights placed next to the site of the World Trade Center from March 11 to April 14, 2002 to create two vertical columns of light in remembrance of the September 11, 2001  attacks.
(Pictures taken on Monday March 11, 2002 when the lights started shining for the very first time - photos of the Tribute in Light memorial from Brooklyn Bridge.)
The tribute was launched again in 2003, to mark the second anniversary of the attack, and has been done every year since on September 11, to mark the anniversary. Those working on the project came up with the concept in the week following the attack.
Architects John Bennett and Gustavo Bonevardi of PROUN Space Studio distributed their "Project for the Immediate Reconstruction of Manhattan's Skyline".
Artists Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda, who before September 11 were working on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center north tower on a proposed light sculpture on the giant radio antenna with Creative Time, conceived of the project "Phantom Towers", and were commissioned by The New York Times Magazine to create an image of the project for its September 23 cover.
Richard Nash Gould, a New York architect, went to the Municipal Art Society with the concept. Gould, a March 1972 graduate of Yale, was part of a firm whose SoHo office looked on the World Trade Center. Other projects by Gould include Howard, Darby & Levin in New York City and Polo Sport, Ralph Lauren in New York City. On September 19, chairman Philip K. Howard wrote to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, asking him "to consider placing two large searchlights near the disaster site, projecting their light straight up into the sky."
On clear nights, the lights could be seen from over 60 miles away, clearly visible in all of New York City and most of suburban Northern New Jersey and Long Island, Fairfield, Connecticut, Westchester County and Rockland County, New York. The beams were clearly visible from the terrace at Century Country Club in Purchase, NY. Pilots have claimed to have seen the beams from their cockpits in the sky over Cleveland, Ohio.
The project was originally going to be named Towers of Light until some people complained that the name emphasized the buildings destroyed instead of the people killed.
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11, 2001 attacks consisted of a series of coordinated terrorist suicide attacks by Islamic extremists on the United States of America on September 11, 2001.
(Pictures taken on 9/11 in Downtown Manhattan, showing the collapse and the aftermath in the streets.)
It is believed that the attacks were originally planned to be executed between March and September 2000 but eventually occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001, when nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower (1 WTC and 2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and irreparable damage to nearby buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. In addition to the 19 hijackers, 2,973 people died; another 24 are missing and presumed dead. The victims were predominantly civilians.
Address
Tribute WTC Visitor Center
120 Liberty Street
NY, NY 10006
Hours
Monday: 10AM - 6 PM
Tuesday: 12PM - 6PM
Wednesday - Saturday: 10AM - 6PM
Sunday: 12PM - 5PM
Admission
Suggested Donation: $10.00
Admission
A, C trains to Chambers Street
E train to World Trade Center
2, 3, 4, 5, J, M and Z trains to Fulton Street.
R and W trains to Rector Street.
NJ PATH trains to World Trade Center Station
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Interactive Bronx map
