Boston’s connection to September 11
Two of the four hijacked planes on September 11, 2001, departed from Boston Logan Airport. American Airlines Flight 11 left at 7:59 a.m. with 81 passengers and 11 crew members and struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower at 8:46 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 departed at 8:14 a.m. with 56 passengers and nine crew members before hitting the South Tower 49 minutes later, according to Encyclopædia Britannica.
Massachusetts’ ties to the attacks extend beyond the airport. State records cited by Patch identify 206 victims who were Massachusetts residents or had direct family connections there. Among the people aboard Flight 11 was flight attendant Betty Ong, who grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown and made a 23-minute call to ground controllers that provided an early warning about the hijacking, according to Hoodline.
A memorial site will mark the start
The relay begins at the Boston Public Garden’s 9/11 Garden of Remembrance, dedicated in 2004 to honor local victims. The site received a sapling grown from the Survivor Tree at Ground Zero in May 2014, according to the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund. Logan Airport added its own permanent memorial in 2009: a 20-by-20-foot glass cube engraved with the names of the passengers and crew members from Flights 11 and 175, Atlas Obscura reports.
A changed Lower Manhattan
The neighborhood receiving the relay has changed substantially since the attacks. According to the New York State Office of the State Deputy Comptroller, Lower Manhattan added 30.8 million square feet of residential building space between 2002 and 2025 through commercial conversions and new construction. Private-sector jobs rose 3 percent to 257,187 between 2014 and 2024 before declining to 253,861 in 2025. The annual observance at the memorial remains centered on remembrance. According to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, victims’ family members read aloud the names of those killed in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
How the flags will travel
Relay For America is sending two American flags from Boston to Ground Zero in New York City for the 25th anniversary. The organization says each flag corresponds to one of the flights that left Logan that morning, according to Relay For America.
Runners from across the country will take turns carrying the flags, with no planned pause between handoffs. The 227-mile course is divided into 25 legs of 9.11 miles, and the relay is scheduled to run continuously from September 9 until its arrival in Manhattan on the morning of September 11, according to Relay For America. CBS Boston reported that organizers intend the route to follow the path toward New York taken by the two flights.
The continuous movement is intended as a symbol of remembrance, founder Joe Nail told CBS Boston. Nail, an Army National Guard officer, co-founded the organization with endurance runner Wyatt Moss in 2026. The pair previously organized a 3,016-mile relay from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., according to The Mountain-Ear.
A public commemoration along the route
The relay’s passage is also being promoted in communities along the course. Wrentham, Massachusetts, issued a civic notice asking residents to gather along the streets and support the runners as they pass, according to the Town of Wrentham.
The event is one of several Boston-to-New York commemorations planned for the 25th anniversary. Former NYPD lieutenant Lisa Lippiello separately planned a 343-mile bicycle ride from Boston to Battery Park honoring fallen first responders, as Hoodline previously reported.
