As New York City prepares to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, New Yorkers gathered in Manhattan Sunday for an annual walk honoring those who died that day and those who later died from 9/11-related illnesses.

The Walk of Remembrance honors Father Mychal Judge, the FDNY chaplain who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001, and whose death was the first officially certified fatality from the attacks.

Conor McDonald, whose late father, NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, started the annual event one year after the attacks, said the gathering remains meaningful 25 years later.

“To be here with the fire department, the police department and everyone else to remember the people that were taken from us 25 years ago, it’s a very special thing,” he said.

Steven McDonald and his wife, Patti Ann, considered Judge a close friend.

“Father Mike was just there for everybody. And this is an example. Everyone that’s here today, again, it’s about Father Mike and what he did for so many people,” Patti Ann McDonald said.

The walk began at St. Francis of Assisi, where Judge served as a Franciscan priest. Participants then traveled down Seventh Avenue, following the same route Judge took as he rushed toward the World Trade Center after the first tower was hit.

The roughly three-mile route ended at St. Peter’s Church near the World Trade Center, where Judge’s body was carried after he was killed.

Judge was in the lobby of the North Tower praying for victims when the South Tower collapsed.

FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said the walk provides an opportunity to reflect on Judge’s journey and the lives lost.

“I remember all those heroes that I remember the journey of Father Michael Judge,” Bonsignore said. “We end down by the Trade Center, and this is where he said goodbye to us. And this is just a real time of reflection and remembrance.”

For FDNY Lt. Mario Polit, who has carried memories of Sept. 11 with him for 25 years, the anniversary brings back vivid memories.

“I couldn’t believe even the quietest, the smell, the dust, everything. It was like a war, walking down there. It was like a war zone,” Polit said.

The group continues to retrace Judge’s path each year, vowing to never forget.

Along the way, participants stop at firehouses and police precincts to remember those who died on Sept. 11, as well as those who have since died from illnesses linked to the attacks.