As the NYPD added the names of nearly 500 officers who have died of 9/11-related illnesses to the walls of its Hall of Heroes at One Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan this week, a blank wall across the room served as a stark reminder that hundreds more could face the same fate.
The empty wall is about 25 feet long and 40 feet high and remains the only wall with no names on it in the somber memorial hall, located near an entrance to NYPD headquarters.
“The number of people passing from 9/11 hasn’t stopped and it seems like it’s increasing,” a high-ranking police source, who helped with recovery efforts at Ground Zero, told The Post. “They need space. There’s no other way around it.”
The Wall of Honor inside the NYPD’s lobby features nearly 1,000 names of officers who died in the line of duty dating back to 1849.
The names of 469 police officers who died of illnesses linked to the Sept. 11 attacks were added to the wall Wednesday, alongside a likeness of the Twin Towers.
A staggering 5,892 first responders and people who lived and worked near Ground Zero have died from cancer caused by the toxic air in the 25 years since 9/11– more than double the 2,753 people killed in the terror attacks, The Post reported Sept. 5.
The NYPD in April added the names of 60 members who died of COVID-19 during the 2020 pandemic to one of the walls in the Hall of Heroes.
An NYPD spokesman said there are “no plans” to use the blank wall for more names and pointed out that there are “extra spaces on the new memorial wall” where the police officers who have died of 9/11 illnesses are located.
