The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals in the vicinity of the World Trade Center in the southernmost part of New York City’s borough of Manhattan; the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area; and – where a hijacked airplane went down after passengers sought to overcome the terrorists on board – a field in western Pennsylvania.
On that horrific day, numerous people congregated on a bridge in the village of Saddle Rock in northern Long Island’s Nassau County. This 324-foot (99-meter) structure, which carries Nassau County Route C09 across Udall Mill Pond, provides an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline. Those who gathered on the bridge during that Tuesday in 2001 did so to watch the unfolding of the deadly assaults on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the ultimate collapse of each of the buildings.
In the ensuing days, grief-stricken area residents continued to visit the Saddle Rock Bridge (also called Udall’s Bridge) to mourn all those who lost their lives and to leave such items as sympathy notes, patriotic drawings, personal tributes, and remembrance candles. About three-and-a-half months after one of the most tragic days in American history, this stone arch bridge — constructed in 1971 and both owned and operated by the Nassau County Department of Public Works –was officially renamed the 9-11 Memorial Bridge.
The public officials who took part in the renaming ceremony for the bridge on December 27 included J. Leonard Samansky (1936-2011), who was mayor of Saddle Rock from 1991 until his death. At the time of Samansky’s passing, his family stated that the achievement he was likely most proud of was having the Saddle Rock Bridge rechristened as the 9-11 Memorial Bridge.
On the day of that ceremony, a plaque commemorating all those who died as a direct result of the attacks on September 11 was installed on the central part of the 9-11 Memorial Bridge and near an American flag. The bridge continues to serve as a place for memorial services held each year on September 11.
Photo Credit: AITFFan1 (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
For more information on the 9-11 Memorial Bridge, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9-11_Memorial_Bridge
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