Sept. 11, 2001.

A day that many will never forget.

It was a beautiful, sunny day, much like it was Thursday, as families said what turned out to be their final goodbyes, never expecting that their loved ones would never walk through the door again.

Twenty-four years have passed since that fateful day, where planes became bombs in the worst terrorist attack on American soil.

It was devastation.

It was disbelief.

It was horrific.

On Thursday morning, Carbon County officials and residents gathered in Josiah White Park in Jim Thorpe to honor those who lost their lives in the attacks; as well as remember those who have fought to defend this country after it was rocked.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner summed up the day as a day where the enemy tried to break our spirit, economy and freedom; however, Americans “stood strong, picked up the pieces and showed the entire world who we are.”

State Sen. Dave Argall briefly spoke before introducing the day’s guest speaker, Andrew Hamilton, the driving force of the 9/11 National Memorial Trail Alliance, which will one day soon, connect several states and communities with hundreds of miles of trail to sites affected by Sept. 11.

“Twenty-four years ago today, our worlds changed,” Hamilton said. “Starting at 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center north tower. Then at 9:03, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower. At 9:37, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

“... At approximately 9:02, Flight 93 leveled out at 35,000 feet over Carbon County, leaving Newark toward its scheduled destination of San Francisco,” he continued. At 10:03, the heroes of Flight 93 crashed into a now sacred field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The 40 heroes of Flight 93 kept another government building in DC from being destroyed and who knows how many lives were spared that day because of those heroes’ actions.”

He spoke of two people he knew with two very different stories from that day.

One, a friend’s brother who was delayed getting to his job at the Pentagon that morning. When the plane hit, that man’s office, which on any other given day he would have been in, was obliterated.

“He just retired,” Hamilton said.

Another friend’s daughter was one of the heroes on Flight 93.

“She was the youngest hero on that flight,” he said, noting that she wasn’t supposed to be on that plane but was able to switch her flight to one three hours earlier in an attempt to get home to see her family.

Hamilton then explained that the lives lost in this terrorist attack, as well as the years that followed in the War on Terrorism helped motivate him to push for the National Memorial Trail.

“The National Memorial Trail is to remember the souls lost on that tragic day,” he said. “The trail is 1,500 miles long and connects the national memorials together. Of that, 903 miles of the trail cross Pennsylvania from southwest to northeast. The trail connects people in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia.”

In Carbon and Schuylkill counties, it is proposed to connect from Jim Thorpe and the D&L Trail to Pottsville.

The goal, Hamilton said, is to have the route of all 903 miles in the state secured by the 25th anniversary next September.

Other speakers echoed Hamilton’s thoughts, both on the events that unfolded that day, and the trail plans taking shape.

“We lost close to 3,000 lives on 9/11 and every year we come together to commemorate and honor and remember their sacrifice,” state Rep. Doyle Heffley said, adding that since the towers fell, our nation, united then under an unthinkable attack, is now more divided than ever. “As we look back at the tragic events of yesterday (Wednesday), we sometimes wonder where our nation was 24 years ago, after 9/11. We were a unified nation ... We were all Americans. ... We need to get back to that spirit, the spirit of collaboration, working together, recognizing that we all have our differences.”

“Our nation suffered one of the most devastating acts of terrorism on Sept. 11, 2001,” Argall said. “Many of us knew people who endured that terror. And even worse, some of us know people who died on that terrible day. ... You must remember the nearly 3,000 lives that were lost and honor the brave men and women who sacrificed themselves that day trying to rescue others. We must continue to honor those who protect our communities every day and defend our freedoms and liberty.”

The event also included an honor and color guard by the United Veterans Organizations and Angela Nardini, who sang the national anthem and God Bless America.