A block south of the World Trade Center site, the walls of O'Hara's Restaurant & Pub are covered with more than 7,000 patches from police officers, firefighters, EMTs and military personnel — a tribute that started on the first anniversary of 9/11 and has never stopped growing. Tim Brown, a 20-year FDNY veteran and 9/11 survivor, visits three or four times a week. He calls the bar at 120 Cedar Street a different kind of 9/11 museum.
That description comes straight from Brown himself, as reported by the New York Post. Before the attacks, O'Hara's was a Cheers-style gathering spot for Wall Streeters, first responders and tradesmen, according to the same account. It had opened in 1983 on the corner of Cedar and Greenwich Streets, and on the morning of September 11, 2001, commodity traders evacuated from the North Tower watched the second plane hit the South Tower on the bar's television, per O'Hara's own history. Owner Mike Keane opened the bar early that day for those displaced traders, and by the next morning O'Hara's was buried in dust and debris from the collapsing towers.
From Rubble to Reopening
O'Hara's reopened in April 2002, and it quickly became a gathering place for people working at Ground Zero, the Post's report notes. The patch tradition began that September, on the first anniversary of the attacks, and has continued ever since. Keane has said people from around the world now want their patches hung alongside the others, and he plans to put up new walls if more space is needed.
The neighborhood O'Hara's serves carries its own scars. Engine Company 10 and Ladder Company 10, operating out of the “Ten House” firehouse at 124 Liberty Street directly across from the World Trade Center site, lost six firefighters on 9/11 and was the first fire station to respond to the attacks, according to FDNY and Wikipedia records. Its facility was heavily damaged and wasn't rebuilt until 2003.
A Red Bandana and a Presidential Honor
Among the thousands of patches, O'Hara's displays a red bandana marked with the number 19 in honor of Welles Crowther, the 24-year-old equities trader at Sandler O'Neill in the South Tower who became known as the man in the red bandana. Crowther saved a reported 18 people during the attack before dying when the tower collapsed. On September 8, 2026, President Donald Trump posthumously presented Crowther with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony at the Ellipse, with his mother Alison and sister Paige accepting the nation's highest civilian honor on his behalf, according to CBS News. Hoodline previously reported on the announcement in its piece on Trump's Medal Pledge To BC Hero. Alison Crowther has visited O'Hara's around 10 times since her son's death.
Brown, who served as a supervisor in Mayor Giuliani's Office of Emergency Management, has brought Navy SEALs, FBI agents and members of the Afghan military's female tactical platoon to O'Hara's over the years. He also visits the 9/11 Memorial four or five times a week. Brown published his memoir and leadership book, “The Greatest Love: Lessons for Living with Extraordinary Courage Even After the Worst Day of Your Life,” on August 25, 2026, through Penguin Random House, with a foreword by Admiral William H. McRaven, per the publisher's release.
Families Who Keep Adding Patches
The patch wall also carries deeply personal grief. Amanda Lynch lost her uncle, Michael Boyle of NoHo's Engine Company 33, in the attacks, and his father James Boyle spent months searching Ground Zero for him. James Boyle died of 9/11-related cancer in 2019. Lynch, who became a paramedic after being mentored by Brown, has added Philadelphia Fire Department and Pennsylvania State Paramedic patches to O'Hara's walls.
Jake Laferriere, a second-generation Minneapolis firefighter and founder of Firefighters for Healing, has added Minneapolis Fire Department and Minneapolis Police Department patches of his own. Their contributions reflect why first responders travel from around the country to visit Lower Manhattan: more than 145,000 9/11 first responders and survivors are currently enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program, with over 57,000 certified cancer cases documented nationwide, according to Northwell Health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's World Trade Center Health Program, members receive annual monitoring exams, medical and mental health treatment for certified WTC-related health conditions, and benefits counseling services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's World Trade Center Health Program says it is seeing an increased number of individuals, primarily survivors, seeking enrollment and/or certification of their health conditions.
A Crisis That Hasn't Ended
The scale of that ongoing toll is stark. As of September 2026, 453 FDNY firefighters and EMS personnel have died from certified 9/11-related illnesses, surpassing the 343 FDNY members killed during the terror attacks themselves, per CBS News. The September 11 attacks killed 2,753 people overall, including 343 firefighters and paramedics and 60 law enforcement officers, according to the Travis Manion Foundation. Occupational health researchers reported this month that toxic dust exposure and PTSD from Ground Zero operations are linked to accelerated brain aging and heightened cognitive decline risks among aging first responders, per PBS.
According to the Office of the New York State Comptroller, the September 11, 2001 attacks killed 2753 people in Lower Manhattan and left the area struggling in their aftermath.
Policy is still catching up to the medical need. In February 2026, federal legislation was signed into law securing more than $600 million in additional funding for the World Trade Center Health Program, averting a projected budget deficit that had threatened medical coverage for responders through 2040, according to The Chief. And on September 9, 2026, New York City released more than 170,000 pages of City Hall records concerning post-9/11 air quality and toxic asbestos risks following a lawsuit settlement, aimed at helping responders prove exposure for victim compensation claims.
Keane plans to open O'Hara's at 8:30 a.m. on the anniversary this Friday and keep it running until around 2 a.m. the following morning. For Brown and the others who keep coming back, the bar remains what he called it: not a static museum, but a living gathering place for a community still counting its losses a quarter-century later.
