Exactly 2,977 small American flags placed in the grass surrounded the 9/11 memorial located in front of the Red Cross in Tallahassee as the community gathered to pay respect to those who lost their lives 25 years ago.
Dozens of local law enforcement officers, firefighters and others surrounded the 11-foot steel beam from the World Trade Center’s South Tower and paused for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. when Flight 11 hit the North Tower.
Local elected officials including Leon County Commissioners Carolyn Cummings and David O’Keefe, Leon County Property Appraiser Akin Akinyemi, state Reps. Allison Tant and Lindsay Cross, as well as former congresswoman and now Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Gwen Graham were in attendance.
The beam took years to be acquired by retired Tallahassee firefighter Michael Terhune, who wanted to design not just a memorial for the lives lost but also an educational tool for teaching future generations about the series of events that took place that day.
Tallahassee pauses to remember 9/11 attacks during memorial service
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2,977 small American flags were placed around the 9/11 Memorial in Tallahassee to honor each of the lives lost 25 years ago during a service held Sept. 11, 2026. (Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat)
“As days turned into years, remembrance of September 11 only turned into a one time event seen on a calendar,” Terhune said during the service. “But for some, the pain, the sacrifice, and loss are a struggle every single day.”
The memorial was created to honor the lives lost even as time moves on and the memory fades for some.
Terhune and Team Guardian created a sundial that casts shadows at significant times correlating to the terrorists attack — including the times each tower was struck, the strike on the Pentagon, the crash of Flight 93 and the first nationwide shutdown of American airspace.
The beam is what’s called the gnomon of a sundial that will shine down on timestamps throughout the day, from the plane striking the north tower at 8:46 a.m. to World Trade Center Building 7 collapsing at 5:20 p.m.
Surrounding the beam is a four sided column with the names of the 2,977 victims, silver plaques with the flight numbers of the four hijacked aircrafts, a monument honoring local veterans killed in the wars that followed, and a silver firefighter bell, traditionally rung when a firefighter dies in the line of duty.
A rendition of the Star Spangled Banner was performed by members of the Florida State University Marching Chiefs.
Graham recalled that Tallahassee came together on that day as she spoke during the service.
“…People turned towards one another. We held hands in prayer, lined up to give blood and stood together in a spirit of quiet, resolute solidarity,” said Graham. “And in our darkest hour, we were not defined by division, but by a shared commitment to service and decency.”
This article includes previous reporting by James Call.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: ‘In our darkest hour’: Tallahassee holds 9/11 memorial service