Two simple blue beams of light shine into the night sky near the World Trade Center every year. There are no words, no pictures, no music. Just light.
Tribute in Light was first displayed on March 11, 2002, the six month anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks which took down the World Trade Center and killed nearly 3,000 people. The lights were projected that year every night for five weeks. Then on September 11, 2003, the display became an annual memorial.
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In the beginning the lights were beamed from an open lot just north of Ground Zero. As redevelopment progressed on the World Trade Center site, the lights were moved to the roof of a parking garage just to the south.
Names such as "Phantom Towers" and "Towers of Light" were part of the original concept, but those names emphasized the fallen buildings. Instead Tribute in Light honors "Those who were lost, as well as those who worked so hard to get our city through that terrible trial," according to the Municipal Arts Society, the organization responsible for the display for the first 10 years. Beginning in 2012, production of the display was taken over by the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
For the first time this year, the general public has a chance to see Tribute in Light from One World Observatory on the 100th floor of 1 World Trade Center which opened earlier this year. The photo gallery above starts with a shot taken as the light beams were tested two nights prior to September 11, 2015.
John Munson may be reached at jmunson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @john_munson. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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