John MacDonald remembers Sept. 11, 2001, very clearly.
At the time, he served as a New Hampshire State Police trooper. He watched on TV as planes flew into the Twin Towers in New York City and felt grief-stricken.
“There was a great deal of sadness throughout the organization and a willingness to help any way we could,” he said.
MacDonald — now a state representative for the towns of Tuftonboro and Wolfeboro — remembers every 9/11 anniversary of the last 25 years. This may be the most heart-wrenching yet.
For the past two nights, two bright blue pillars of light have been beaming from Mount Washington into the northern New Hampshire sky, a remembrance of the attacks that took nearly 3,000 lives.
MacDonald hadn’t seen the lights fully due to the fog, but expected to visit Friday night and hoped that the forecasted clear skies held true.
“I think it’s a great way to remember all the folks, civilians and law enforcement, firemen and first responders, that lost their lives on that particular day,” he said.
The idea for the project was born shortly after the 24th anniversary last year. Renee Plummer, a Portsmouth resident who is a part of the Two International Group at Pease International Tradeport, immediately thought of the project when she realized such a monumental anniversary was approaching.
She said it took a whole year to obtain permits and permissions to construct the project, and while it was a long process, it wasn’t a hard one. Everyone who was a part of it, she said, was fully on board and eager to make it happen.
“It was a huge project, but everybody had a mission,” Plummer said. “We all understood what it was. I think we were driven because of today, 25 years of 9/11.”
One of her first calls was to Chris Malloy, owner of Malloy Events in Rochester. The two have worked closely together in the past, and there was no doubt in Malloy’s mind about wanting to join the showcase as its technical producer.
Malloy said it was a special thing to be a part of, not only because of the “professional satisfaction” of making the lights work but because the lights themselves symbolize the iconic World Trade Center towers and the lives of those who were lost.
“There’s no amount of planning or drawings or renderings that can capture what it’s like to be on top of Mount Washington at night in the dark, and then turning on these two massive beams of light,” he said. “Just the experience of being up on the mountain at that time with so few people is just a very awe-inspiring experience.”
The Mount Washington Auto Road has offered shuttles to the top of the mountain to see the memorial, carrying over 100 people at a time. Nicholas Griffin, the operations manager at the auto road, said the lights turn on around 8 p.m.
So far, visitors have been “absorb[ing] that pretty somber moment” when they look at the lights, he said.
“It’s a really surreal moment for a lot of people that are going up there,” Griffin said. “We’re seeing a lot of firefighters, first responders, just kind of really taking in that moment. You can definitely tell it means a big part in a lot of people’s hearts.”
Seeing the reactions from the last few days has gripped Plummer.
“I think they were looking for something,” she said. “They were looking for something to hold on to or to look at. I mean, we all can’t run down to New York or go down to the Pentagon area or Shanksville. We needed a place that, almost a spiritual place, that we could just reflect and understand and just feel it.”
MacDonald said he hopes this moment of remembrance brings people together despite the climate of divisiveness permeating the country’s politics.
“I just wish people would come together, come together like they did the day after 9/11, that we can kind of unite as a country, both political parties, and try to settle our differences in that calm and respectful way,” he said.
