WESTPORT — On a cloudless September day 21 years ago, people gathered on a small slice of Westport’s shoreline to watch in horror as an ominous cloud rose from smoldering rubble in lower Manhattan.
That waterfront site in Sherwood Island State Park is now the state’s memorial to victims of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
On Sept. 8, when the state holds its annual ceremony paying tribute to 161 people with ties to Connecticut — including several from Westport — killed that day, if skies are clear, the Manhattan skyline will again be visible.
But it was changed forever that day when the iconic Twin Towers were destroyed by terrorist-hijacked jetliners, claiming the lives of more than 2,700 people. In addition, more than 200 others perished that day in terror-related attacks on the Pentagon and a crashed airliner in Pennsylvania.
Connecticut’s commemoration of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is planned for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Sherwood Island memorial where names of victims with ties to the state are engraved.
Some of those victims’ relatives are expected to attend the ceremony, and as has become traditional, the names of the 161 state-related victims will be read aloud.
The program is planned several days in advance of the large Sept. 11 commemoration at the Ground Zero memorial on the site of the former World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, since many Connecticut families and friends of victims also attend that observance.
The 9/11 ceremony at the Sherwood Island memorial is expected to be live-streamed by the Connecticut Network, event organizers said.
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