Can You See the Mount Washington 9/11 Tribute From Boston?

Stylized View of The Honor Summit, Mount Washington, New Hampshire From Boston

For four nights marking the 25th anniversary of September 11, two enormous beams of light will rise from Mount Washington. On a clear night, Boston may be just close enough to see them.

September 9–12, I’m going to look north.

I don’t know if I’ll see anything.

Boston sits close to the outer edge of the estimated viewing range, the weather will have its say, and New England has never been particularly interested in cooperating simply because somebody made plans.

But I’m going to look.

Beginning September 9, two enormous beams of light will rise from the summit of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast, in remembrance of the 25th anniversary of September 11.

They’ll return each night through September 12, beginning at 8 p.m.

The installation is called The Honor Summit.

Organizers estimate that under the right conditions the beams could be visible from roughly 130 to 135 miles away.

That puts Boston tantalizingly close.

Twenty-Five Years Is Hard to Believe

For those of us who remember September 11, 2001, it doesn’t feel like history.

I can write “25 years” and understand the arithmetic without quite understanding the passage of time.

Some things help me mark the time. It was my fifth child’s fourth birthday.

There are adults now who weren’t alive when it happened. They learned September 11 the way we learned other dates in school.

Those of us who lived it remember something else entirely.

We remember where we were.

I had just dropped the kids off at school and stopped at a funky little farm stand on the way home, the kind of place I imagine hadn’t changed much since the 1960s. An old-school radio was playing behind the counter, and the two people working there—both of whom looked old enough to have been there on opening day—were whispering something about a plane. They seemed distracted, concerned.

I got home shortly afterward and turned on the television. The rest of the day became a dream, a nightmare really, one long stretch of disbelief and horror.

Then, sometime around 10 that night, I remembered it was my little boy’s birthday.

We lit the candles and sang “Happy Birthday” through our tears.

Even now, that private memory sits beside the images the whole country carries. We remember the television. We remember the second plane, and the moment when confusion became something much worse.

American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 both took off from Logan Airport before they were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center.

That’s part of our history, too.

And for me, Boston was part of that morning in a way that felt painfully close. It was my hometown. I grew up near Logan Airport. I knew the roads in and out, the terminals, the tower.

Can We Really See the Lights From Boston?

Maybe.

I wouldn’t promise it.

Mount Washington is roughly at the edge of what organizers believe could be the beams’ visible range. Clouds, haze, terrain, buildings and trees could make the whole question academic.

But if you’re in Greater Boston and want to try, find somewhere with as clear a view of the northern horizon as you can after 8 p.m.

Don’t expect two enormous searchlights hovering over your backyard. At this distance, the beams may be faint, and because we’re viewing them from the south, they may even appear closer together or as a single column.

The official Honor Summit site has an interactive map of suggested viewing locations for people who want better odds.

And if you’re thinking of driving all the way to Mount Washington, there’s one thing to know: you won’t be able to simply drive yourself up the Auto Road at night. Special guided tours are being offered during the event.

But I almost like the idea of trying to see it from here.

A memorial in New Hampshire.

A person standing somewhere in Massachusetts.

And light bridging the distance.

And Then There Are the Birds

There’s another story wrapped inside this one that feels very New England.

September is migration season.

Many small songbirds travel at night, and powerful artificial lights can attract and disorient them. The same problem has been documented around New York City’s Tribute in Light.

So New Hampshire Audubon is involved in monitoring the Mount Washington project. If bird activity becomes concerning, the lights can be temporarily shut down.

Think about that for a minute.

We’re putting two enormous beams into the sky to remember human lives, while people on the mountain will also be watching for tiny birds making their own extraordinary journey through the darkness.

If the lights have to go dark for a while to let them pass, that doesn’t diminish the memorial.

I think it adds something to it.

Look Up

The Honor Summit will run September 9 through September 12, with the beams scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. each night. Weather and bird migration can affect the display.

If you’re outside in Boston or somewhere north of the city on one of those nights, look toward New Hampshire.

Maybe we’ll see them.

Maybe we won’t.

But 25 years after a September morning none of us who lived through it will ever forget, two beams will once again rise into the American sky.

And for a few nights, New England will be looking up together.

If you love Boston and New England—the history, the places, the people and the stories that connect them—join me on the GoBoston Substack. I write there about the Boston stories worth remembering, the ones happening now, and the ones hiding in plain sight.