Tonight: Tribute In Light Will Shine On September 11th

By Idy Perl

Tomorrow will mark 23 years since September 11, 2001, when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers in Manhattan. 

Just like every year on September 11th, the Tribute In Light will shine bright in the Manhattan sky from dusk to dawn to honor those who lost their lives on that day.

Assembled on the roof of the Battery Parking Garage south of the 9/11 Memorial, the twin beams reach up to four miles into the sky and are comprised of eighty-eight 7,000-watt xenon lightbulbs positioned into two 48-foot squares, echoing the shape and orientation of the Twin Towers. The installation can also be viewed from a 60-mile radius around lower Manhattan.

The NY Bird Alliance has expressed their issues with the light installation, saying that the bright lights confuse birds at night and cause them to fly in circles and crash into nearby buildings due to exhaustion. Last year they came to an agreement with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, who agreed to shut the lights for 20 minutes at a time if volunteers from the Bird Alliance, who monitored the beams throughout the night, observed more than a thousand birds circling the lights at a time.

Last year volunteers were seen in Manhattan streets with binoculars as they monitored the bird activity throughout the night. The lights were indeed shut off a couple times throughout the night and several birds crashed into nearby buildings. One bird was treated for a possible concussion, but Baruch Hashem recovered and was released two days later.

Tribute in Light first debuted on March 11, 2002 in a vacant lot across from ground zero on West Street.