Hundreds of people who lost relatives on Sept. 11 gathered yesterday at the site where the World Trade Center towers collapsed to commemorate the terrorist attacks' third anniversary.
Pat Hawley, of Charlotte, North Carolina, said he has come to previous ground zero ceremonies to remember his older sister, Karen Sue Juday.
"It seems like it gets harder every year, because it's that much more time since I've been able to talk to my sister and be with her," said Hawley, 44.
The names of the 2,749 people killed in the attack were to be read aloud, this time by parents and grandparents of the dead.
The ceremony was to pause four times for moments of silence marking the exact minute of each plane crash and tower collapse.
Nancy Brandemarti, who has never attended the remembrance, was to read a poem for her son, Nicky Brandemarti, a financial analyst who died just weeks before his 22nd birthday.
"Every day is hard, but this day is a little bit harder," she said. "This day is just a day to think about him."
There were roses available for family members to pick up as they came in.
At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed that day by another hijacked plane, officials were to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence. In Pennsylvania, bells were to toll across the state at the minute the fourth plane went down, killing the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93.
Communities nationwide were to observe Sept. 11 in their own ways, with services at firehouses, memorial dedications, bell-ringing events and flag ceremonies.
On the first anniversary of the attacks, dignitaries, community leaders and relatives of victims stood at ground zero and spoke the names of the dead. Last year, the children of victims took up that task.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was scheduled to participate in the ground zero remembrance, said parents and grandparents were asked to lead the ceremony this year because the city wants to "acknowledge their great sacrifice and thank them for helping all of us to shoulder the loss."
His predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, New York Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey were also expected to deliver readings.
During the ceremony, families were to be able to walk down a ramp to the footprints of the towers. The area, seven stories below street level, was where rescue workers combed the debris with rakes, painstakingly searching for fragments of human remains.
Three years later, work still continues to identify the 20,000 pieces of human remains that were recovered. The medical examiner's office has identified about 1,570 victims, or just 60 percent.
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