Thirty-three years have passed since terrorists first attacked the World Trade Center on a cold, snowy day in February 1993, but the memories of those killed in the bombing remained alive at a memorial ceremony Thursday afternoon.
Photo by Lloyd Mitchell
Thirty-three years have passed since terrorists first attacked the World Trade Center on a cold, snowy day in February 1993, but the memories of those killed in the bombing remained alive at a memorial ceremony Thursday afternoon.
Hundreds gathered at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza in Lower Manhattan for the annual service honoring the lives of six individuals taken in the truck bombing of the Twin Towers just before 12:20 p.m. on Feb. 26, 1993.
Thursday’s ceremony included family members of those lost, as well as first responders and Port Authority employees who were part of the historic event.
Terrorists, led by Ramzi Yousef, drove a rental truck with 1,200 pounds of explosives into the underground parking garage below the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993. The bomb was detonated at about 12:18 p.m.; the terrorists had intended to cause such a blast that it would have toppled the North Tower onto the South Tower, causing their demise.
The blast did not destroy the World Trade Center, but it caused carnage across numerous floors of the World Trade Center’s substructure and sent plumes of choking black smoke through both towers.
Six people near the blast zone were killed: John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen A. Knapp, William Macko, Wilfredo Mercado, and Monica Rodriguez and her unborn child. More than 1,000 people were injured; tens of thousands of shocked and horrified workers were evacuated from the buildings.
History would prove the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to be a grim harbinger of the horror that would follow on Sept. 11, 2001. On that day of infamy, terrorists succeeded in bringing down both Twin Towers by deliberately crashing hijacked aircraft into the 110-story structures, killing nearly 3,000 people in the process.
When the National September 11 Memorial was built on the footprints of the former Twin Towers, planners included the names of the six victims killed in the 1993 bombing. It was a sign that their loss would be remembered forever alongside the names of all those killed on 9/11.
“We didn’t know it then, but we would learn that our resilience in 1993 would be needed in the years to come,” said Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia at Thursday’s ceremony. “It would teach us how to respond to future tragedy and uncertainty. … It is incredibly helpful for all of us to renew again and again what they gave to us, and to make sure that we keep their memory alive and their sacrifice alive.”
After the names of the 1993 bombing victims were read, guests at the memorial service placed yellow roses and other flowers at the corner of the 9/11 memorial where those victims’ names are etched.
For Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole, continuing to honor those lost in the bombing 33 years ago is something that the agency takes seriously.
“We stand here today to make sure that never goes away. This remembrance of these six families and the victims will never be forgotten,” O’Toole said. “To the families, we pledge to you our love, our support, our dedication, our remembrance.”
On Sept. 11, 2026, thousands more will gather at the 9/11 Memorial to mark a quarter-century since that day of infamy.
