Why Boston Will Turn Blue Tonight
Stylized AI-generated illustration based on a real view of the Boston skyline.
On the 25th anniversary of September 11, more than 30 buildings across Boston and Cambridge will illuminate the skyline in blue, part of a young tradition rooted in Boston's own connection to that morning.
If you look toward the Boston skyline after dark tonight, you may notice something unusual. More than 30 buildings across Boston and Cambridge are expected to glow sky blue for the 25th anniversary of September 11, joining a growing local observance inspired by New York's Tribute in Light.
The Prudential Tower, Fenway Park, the Zakim Bridge and Cambridge City Hall are among the landmarks taking part in the broader local tribute, with additional office towers and institutions across Boston and Cambridge joining in. The Prudential Center has officially scheduled its tower lighting for blue tonight in support of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum's Tribute in Light. Cambridge City Hall will also illuminate its façade in sky blue at dusk.
It will be a striking sight, but what makes the story especially interesting is that this isn't a decades-old Boston tradition. It is only in its third year, and it is growing.
A New Boston Tradition
Boston's blue-light tribute began in 2024, when local marketing executive Gogi Gupta, founder of Gupta Media, encouraged Boston building owners and business leaders to participate in the observance surrounding New York's Tribute in Light. Nine Boston buildings joined that first year. More participated in 2025, and this year more than 30 buildings are expected to take part.
New York's memorial is unmistakable: two enormous beams rise into the night from Lower Manhattan, recalling the footprints of the Twin Towers. Boston doesn't try to reproduce that image. Instead, individual buildings illuminate themselves in the same sky blue, gradually turning the skyline itself into the memorial.
There is something particularly fitting about Boston developing its own way of marking this anniversary, because September 11 has always been part of this city's history, too.
The Flights Left From Logan
American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 both departed Logan Airport on the morning of September 11, 2001. Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. Flight 175 struck the South Tower at 9:03.
For those of us who lived here then, that detail has never felt incidental. The planes came from our airport. They flew out over a city and harbor we knew. People boarded those flights in Boston expecting an ordinary trip to California.
One of them was Daniel “Danny” Lewin, the 31-year-old cofounder of Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies. Lewin had studied at MIT and helped develop mathematical work that became part of Akamai's foundation and helped transform the way information moves across the internet.
Lewin is believed to have confronted the hijackers aboard Flight 11 and is often described as the first person killed in the September 11 attacks. The connection remains especially visible in Cambridge, where Akamai still has its headquarters and has participated in Boston's blue-light tribute. The Boston Globe reported that an Akamai executive crossing the Longfellow Bridge last year was struck by the sight of tower after tower glowing blue across the river.
Boston Is Remembering on the Ground, Too
The tribute isn't confined to the skyline. Thursday evening, volunteers and students gathered in the Boston Public Garden to plant nearly 3,000 American flags, representing the 2,977 people killed in the attacks. Among those remembered is Massachusetts native Mark Bavis, who was aboard United Airlines Flight 175.
The display takes on a different meaning at the 25-year mark. An entire generation has now grown up without a personal memory of September 11. Someone who is 25 today was not yet born when those planes left Logan. What remains vivid memory for millions of Americans is becoming history for millions of others.
That makes the rituals of remembrance more important, but perhaps also more interesting. Traditions aren't always inherited fully formed. Sometimes we watch them being created.
Boston's blue skyline is one of them.
Reclaiming the Route From Boston to New York
Another new commemoration began in the Public Garden Wednesday night, when runners set out carrying two American flags on a 227-mile relay from Boston to Ground Zero. The two flags represent the two hijacked flights that left Logan that morning.
The organizers describe the journey as an effort to “reclaim the route.” Twenty-five years ago, two planes carried terror from Boston toward New York. This week, runners are traveling from Boston toward New York carrying flags in remembrance instead. They are expected to reach Ground Zero today.
It is a simple idea, but a powerful one, and distinctly Boston. The story of September 11 didn't begin only when the planes reached Manhattan. Part of it began here.
At 8:46 This Morning
Massachusetts is observing the anniversary throughout the Commonwealth today. Governor Maura Healey ordered flags lowered to half-staff and called on residents, schools, businesses and organizations to observe a statewide moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the moment Flight 11 struck the North Tower. The Massachusetts State House will be illuminated in red, white and blue tonight.
Cambridge is holding its own ceremonies as well, including a morning remembrance at the Robert W. Healy Public Safety Facility and synchronized ceremonies at city firehouses before City Hall turns sky blue at dusk.
Twenty-five years changes the way a city remembers. People who were children that morning are now raising children of their own. Those of us who were adults can still remember remarkably ordinary details about where we were when we first heard the news, because the ordinary day we thought we were having suddenly disappeared.
Boston remembers September 11 through permanent memorials and names carved in stone, but tonight it will do something much more temporary. For a few hours, familiar buildings will look different.
If you're in Boston tonight, look up. The blue across the skyline isn't simply another lighting display. It is a young Boston tradition taking shape before us, one that connects the city we see today with two airplanes that left Logan Airport 25 years ago this morning and changed the world.
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Sources
The Boston Globe — Boston skyline to light up in honor of 9/11
Massachusetts Governor's Office — Governor Healey to Commemorate 25th Anniversary of September 11 Attacks
City of Cambridge — City of Cambridge to Honor 25th Anniversary of 9/11 with Community Ceremonies of Remembrance
Prudential Center — 2026 Tower Lightings
CBS Boston — Flags placed at Boston Public Garden to honor lives lost in 9/11 attacks 25 years ago
CBS Boston — Runners carrying American flags from Boston to NYC to “reclaim the route” of 9/11 flights
Axios Boston — Runners carry US flags from Boston to NYC on 9/11 anniversary