Americans marked the seventh anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with a heartfelt ceremony at ground zero and other solemn remembrances around the country, honoring those killed in the strikes that ended the US's sense of invulnerability and set the stage for two wars. Just outside of Washington, DC, a new memorial at the Pentagon was dedicated as the names of the 184 people killed there were read aloud to mourners. But the biggest death toll in the Sept 11 attacks was in New York. Relatives of victims killed at the World Trade Center gathered at ground zero in lower Manhattan for readings from dignitaries and a recitation of the names of the dead. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain visited the site to pay silent respects. In all, almost 3,000 people from over 90 countries were killed in the separate attacks on three sites in the United States. "Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day our world was broken," said the mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the start of the ceremony, calling Sept 11, 2001, a "day that began like any other and ended as none ever has". The ritual at ground zero included moments of silence at 8.46 am, 9.03am and 9.59 am and 10.29am - the times when two hijacked jets slammed into the trade center buildings and the twin towers fell. Later, Mr McCain and Mr Obama walked together into the great pit where the World Trade Center once stood. The two rivals stopped to talk with a small group of family members of the attacks' victims of seven years ago. They laid flowers at the pit's commemorative reflecting pool, bowed their heads and walked off to speak with fire and police personnel. There were no speeches. Services were also held in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, in Virginia just across a river from Washington. The attacks, claimed by al Qa'eda, paved the way for George W Bush - then less than a year into his first term - to launch an attack against Afghanistan, where the group's leader Osama bin Laden was hiding. They also served as justification for the attack on Iraq, which led to the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. Among the speakers at ground zero were three children who were very young when their father went to work at the World Trade Center seven years ago and never came home. "I remember playing in the yard with him. I remember him pulling my wagon. He was strong. He always made me feel safe," said Alex Salamone, wearing the soccer jersey of his father, John. "I wish I could remember more, but we were so young when he died." In Washington, Mr Bush led a White House gathering in observing the moment which served to shape his presidency. Standing next to him under threatening skies for the brief South Lawn ceremony were his wife, Laura, and the vice president Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne. The assembled crowd in Washington numbered in the hundreds and included leaders of Congress, members of the Cabinet, diplomats, men and women in military uniform and others who work at the White House. Across the Potomac River, a new memorial at the Pentagon was dedicated as the names of the victims were read aloud to mourners there. Bush also helped dedicate that memorial. He said the terrorists could not break the resolve of the US armed forces who have "taken the fight to the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. "Thanks to the brave men and women, and all those who work to keep us safe, there has not been another attack on our soil in 2,557 days," he said. The Pentagon Memorial, built at a cost of US$22 million, contains 184 benches that will glow with light in the night, as well as trees and trickling water. Each bench is dedicated to an individual victim, and the structures are organized as a timeline of the victims' ages, moving from the youngest, three-year-old Dana Falkenberg, to the oldest, John D Yamnicky, 71. Relatives of victims began arriving at dawn at New York's ground zero, now a huge construction site. American flags were draped over silent cranes. Family members and students representing more than 90 countries that lost victims on that day read the names of 2,751 people killed in New York, one more than last year. The city restored Sneha Philip, a woman who mysteriously vanished on Sept 10, 2001, to its official death toll this year after a court ruled that she was likely killed at the trade center. In Pennsylvania, several hundred people gathered to read the names of 40 victims killed in Shanksville where Flight 93 came down after passengers reportedly stormed the cockpit to thwart terrorists' plans to use that plane as a weapon like the others. Memorials are years away from being built in Pennsylvania and New York. As in past years, two bright blue beams of light will shine at night on the New York City skyline, in memory of the fallen towers.
*AP