Halfway between New York and Washington, the city of Philadelphia will be commemorating the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in its own special way.
Mayor John Street's office is planning several events in an effort to honor the victims of the tragedy, but also to send a message that the city and the nation are moving forward and returning to normal.
"As much as the mayor feels it is important to hold these events, it is also important for this country to ultimately heal," mayoral spokesman Frank Keel said. "The mayor feels that while it is important to show some reverence, we also need to continue to move on with our lives and take care of business.
"Otherwise, we are giving in to the psychological warfare of the terrorists," he said.
The focus of the commemoration will be a city-wide moment of silence. Street will hold a candlelight vigil at City Hall in the hopes of garnering a mass moment of silence slated to occur sometime around 10 a.m.
According to Keel, the mayor envisions the people of Philadelphia out in the streets, with heads bowed, united in a moment of remembrance for the victims of the tragedy.
"This is the most dramatic, compelling and fitting commemoration of that tragic day," Keel said.
The mayor's office hopes that the media will take an active role in promoting the event to the public, in addition to the letters to businesses, schools and other organizations being issued by City Hall.
Another commemorative event will occur at the Liberty Museum near 3rd and Chestnut streets, where a crystal replica of the World Trade Center's twin towers will be unveiled.
Finally, coupling the remembrance of the Sept. 11 tragedy with one of the city's own, there will be a silent march of the city's police and firemen which will conclude at the Meridian building downtown.
One Meridian Plaza, just southwest of City Hall, was the site of a deadly fire in 1991 which injured about a dozen firefighters and claimed the lives of three firefighters of the Engine 11 station at 6th and South streets -- Captain David Holcombe, 44-year-old firefighter Phyllis McAllister and 29-year-old firefighter James Chappell.
