It was a cool late summer day in New York, just as it was thirteen years ago when the first hijacked plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Many New Yorkers remembered that morning, when they saw the two planes crashing into the towers and fled the city as the south tower collapsed, then the north tower fell.
The mood was solemn, and the security tight across the city, from the disaster site at Ground Zero to the very busy Times Square, as New Yorkers remembered those they lost.
At Ground Zero, an annual ritual born from the 2001 attacks played out in New York as it did across America.
Relatives read out the names of victims at the Memorial Plaza at the new World Trade Center in lower Manhattan in a ceremony also attended by politicians and dignitaries.
Bells tolled to mark the exact times when each of the four hijacked planes crashed, two in New York, one at the Pentagon in Washington DC, the other in Pennsylvania.
At 8:46 a.m., U.S. President Barack Obama emerged from the White House. Taking a moment of silence to remember victims before "Taps", a traditional American military song often played at memorials and funerals, was played.
Obama then headed to Arlington, Virginia, for a private ceremony at the Pentagon 9-11 memorial site, where the third plane crashed and destroyed part of the U.S. Department of Defense complex.
"As Americans, we draw strength from you, for your love is the ultimate rebuke to the hatred of those who attacked us that bright blue morning. They sought to do more than bring down buildings or murder our people. They sought to break our spirit and to prove to the world that their power to destroy was greater than our power to persevere and to build," Obama said.
In Pennsylvania, there was
another gathering of politicians, dignitaries and relatives of the 40
passengers and crew members who died when another hijacked plane crashed
into a field.
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9/11 remembrance services held across the US |
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