Drones Recreate Twin Towers Over New York Harbor for 9/11 Anniversary

With the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks approaching, tributes have begun to appear across New York. One of the most visible arrived in the skies above Lower Manhattan on the evening of September 9, when 2,977 illuminated drones rose from Governors Island and reconstructed the Twin Towers at full architectural scale. Titled “2,977 Lights Over New York Harbor,” the aerial artwork counted one light for each person killed in the attacks.  

Creative director Addison Mehr developed the project with members of the 9/11 family, survivor, and responder community, while Dutch studio Drift and architects Shigeru Ban and Dean Maltz served as artistic advisers, with additional collaborators including producer Sky Elements and drone artist Yan Paul Dubbelman. The project drew on the experience of FDNY first responders Brenda Berkman and Tim Brown; Terry Strada of 9/11 Families United; Jim Smith, whose wife, NYPD officer Moira Smith, died in the attacks; and Genevieve Siller, daughter of firefighter Stephen Siller.  

“As artists, we’re humbled as originators of the drone light show medium to be part of one of the most important remembrances of our lifetime,” Drift founders Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta said in a statement. “We couldn’t think of more impactful use of technology as it is now more important than ever to create the best possible future by using the new tools of our time to never forget the past.” The occasion continues the studio’s history of deploying drone performances for commemorative events. Previous projects have marked the 75th anniversary of the Netherlands’ liberation and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. 

Conceived in dialogue with Tribute in Light, the twin beams projected annually from Lower Manhattan around the anniversary, “2,977 Lights Over New York Harbor” saw the drones first gather into a spiraling helix before resolving into the familiar outlines of the Twin Towers, their slender gridded profiles suspended high above the water. The installation appeared twice for 15 minutes, with the drones hovering for several minutes before the lights went dark. A recorded score accompanied the aerial work, including John Adams’s “On the Transmigration of Souls,” composed in response to 9/11, as well as music by Philip Glass and Max Richter. 

The helix also recalled an unrealized chapter in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. Its spiraling configuration deliberately referenced the THINK Team’s World Trade Center proposal, developed by a group that included Ban alongside architects Rafael Viñoly and David Rockwell. The scheme envisioned open latticework towers rising above the original footprints without touching them, with cultural and civic spaces suspended in the sky. Daniel Libeskind ultimately won the competition for the site’s master plan.  

For Berkman, an artist who also served as an FDNY responder on September 11, the project carries particular urgency as firsthand knowledge of that day grows more distant. “But art can help convey information, feelings, and understanding of past events from one generation to the next,” she says. “Twenty-five years after 9/11, 100 million Americans have no memory of their own of that day. I hope this new tribute will help bring insight into 9/11 to that new generation.”  

The tribute also arrives as the World Trade Center enters another phase of its decades-long reconstruction. Recent additions include the Perelman Performing Arts Center and the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine, which replaced a church destroyed in the attacks. Construction has begun on 2 World Trade Center, a 55-story tower designed by Foster + Partners that will house American Express’s global headquarters upon its completion in 2031.