Remembering a nation's loss

The gathering at Zuccotti Park, adjacent to the World Trade Center site, failed to evoke the same emotions as the spot where the Twin Towers had stood.

Ground zero is "more sacred and sad," said Clarence White, whose brother was killed at the trade center. At the park, he said, "the meaning wasn't as close."

Across the country, Americans went through familiar mourning rituals as they looked back on the day when terrorists hijacked four jetliners and killed nearly 3,000 people.

President Bush attended ceremonies at the White House and Pentagon, and the 40 passengers and crew members who died when a flight crashed in Pennsylvania were honored as "citizen soldiers."

The Manhattan ceremonies were held largely in Zuccotti Park because of rebuilding at ground zero. First responders, volunteers and firefighters who helped rescue New Yorkers from the collapsing towers read the names of the city's 2,750 victims, a list that grew by one with the addition of a woman who died of lung disease in 2002.

Several first responders referred to the illnesses and deaths of their colleagues that they blame on exposure to toxic dust.

"I want to acknowledge those lost post-9/11 as a result of answering the call, including police officer NYPD James Zadroga," said volunteer ambulance worker Reggie Cervantes-Miller. Zadroga, 34, died more than a year ago of respiratory illness after spending hundreds of hours working to clean up ground zero.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has presided over each of the anniversary events, described Sept. 11, 2001, as "the day that tore across our history and our hearts. We come together again as New Yorkers and as Americans to share a loss that can't be measured."

As in years past, people clutched framed photos of their lost loved ones, raising them toward the sky, or held multicolored bunches of flowers against their chests.

The city moved the ceremony this year because of progressing construction at the site, where several idle cranes overlooked a partly built transit hub, 1,776-foot office tower and Sept. 11 memorial.

Family members had threatened to boycott the ceremony and hold their own remembrance if they were not granted access. The city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey allowed relatives to descend a ramp to lay flowers inside a reflecting pool, with two 6-foot outlines of the towers inside, and to touch the ground where the trade center once stood. An estimated 3,500 people came to the site.

Howard Gabler, who worked on the 47th floor of the trade center's North Tower and escaped on the day of the attack, came to mourn his son, Fredric, who worked on the 104th floor. There were no remains.

"This is where he died, and we have nothing else," he said. Gabler said he touched the ground, which he fears will not be available to him next year as construction goes on. "So today I kissed my hand and I kissed the ground - I'm still kissing him."

In Washington, President Bush paused for a moment of silence outside the White House, while Gen. Peter Pace spoke beside the Pentagon wall where one of the hijacked planes had broken through.

Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the victims' families that their loved ones will always be remembered. "I do not know the proper words to tell you what's in my heart, what is in our hearts, what your fellow citizens are thinking today. We certainly hope that somehow these observances will help lessen your pain." Pace called the anniversary "a day of recommitment."

At the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, service members bowed their heads in memory of the victims.

In Shanksville, Pa., the 40 passengers and crew who died when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field were honored for their courage in banding together to foil the hijackers. Surviving family members and volunteers read the names of the victims, with two bells rung after each.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who made an unannounced visit to the site, said he and other officials remain vigilant in their efforts to prevent another terrorist attack. He referred to the passengers and crew members as inspiring "citizen soldiers."

"You have my admiration, you have my love and you have my promise that we will continue to work every single day to protect the people of this country, all in the name of those who perished heroically," he told a crowd of more than 300 people.

In all, 2,974 victims were killed by the Sept. 11 attacks: the 2,750 connected to the World Trade Center, the 40 in Pennsylvania, and 184 at the Pentagon. Those numbers do not include the 19 hijackers.