More Than 150 Join Columbus 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb 25 Years After the Attacks

COLUMBUS, Ga. More than 150 firefighters, law-enforcement officers and community members gathered in Columbus for a memorial stair climb marking 25 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

According to WTVM, participants climbed a staircase circuit 13 times, a total organizers used to represent the 110 floors of the World Trade Center towers.

For many of the firefighters taking part, the physical challenge was made more demanding by full turnout gear weighing as much as 75 pounds.

They carried more than equipment

Some climbers carried the names and photographs of firefighters killed on September 11, turning each trip up the stairs into an individual act of remembrance.

Radio traffic from the day of the attacks played in the background as participants climbed.

That detail gave the event a purpose beyond endurance. It connected a West Georgia community gathering to the 343 FDNY firefighters who died in the line of duty during the attacks, as well as law-enforcement officers and thousands of other victims.

A national remembrance carried out locally

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation has organized and supported memorial stair climbs across the country for more than two decades.

Its 2026 observance carried additional significance because this year marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The Foundation also launched its national #ForThe343 remembrance effort this year, encouraging people across the country to participate in acts of remembrance.

In Columbus, WTVM reported that local leaders from Brodwyn and Associates, Fort Benning, the Columbus Clingstones and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation were involved in organizing the event.

Participants paid a $50 registration fee, with proceeds benefiting the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

The community climbed too

The event was not limited to career first responders.

Dozens of community members also joined the climb, making the memorial a public act of remembrance rather than an observance held only within the fire service.

That broader participation matters 25 years later. A generation of younger Georgians has no personal memory of September 11, while many adults who remember that morning are now watching the anniversary move from lived experience into history.

The Georgia inside the story

September 11 was a national tragedy, but remembrance happens locally.

In Columbus, that means firefighters climbing in heavy gear, residents joining them on the stairs and individual names being carried through every lap.

The significance of the Columbus stair climb is not simply that people remembered 9/11. It is that West Georgians turned remembrance into something physical, communal and difficult enough to demand participation.