New York – Weeping relatives marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks Sunday with prayers, solemn remembrances and heartfelt messages to their dead brothers and sisters at the site where the World Trade Center collapsed in a nightmarish cloud of dust and debris four years ago.
In a ceremony lasting longer than four hours, more than 600 relatives read the names of the 2,749 victims who died at the Trade Center. Several blew kisses to the sky after reading a loved one’s name, while others left the microphone sobbing. Several held up photos of loved ones.
“We miss you, Charlie, and we love you. Your boys will always remember,” Peggy Garbarini said in memory of her brother, Fire Lt. Charles William Garbarini, who was 44 when he died at the Trade Center.
In New Orleans, New York firefighters helping with the relief effort gathered around a makeshift memorial, accepting the gift of a bell from the steeple of a nearby church destroyed in the storm. Rescue workers in Biloxi, Miss., took a break from searching for the storm’s missing to remember those who died on Sept. 11.
As the names were read at ground zero, weeping mourners filed down a ramp to a reflecting memorial pool at the floor of the site, which remains virtually empty four years after the attack. Families filled the water with red, orange and yellow roses, some shaking as they inscribed dedications on the wooden edge of the pool.
The ceremony paused for moments of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time at which a hijacked jetliner crashed into the north tower; at 9:03 a.m., when a second plane struck the south tower; at 9:59 a.m., when the south tower fell; and at 10:29 a.m., when the second tower collapsed.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice read a poem by Christina Rossetti after the second moment of silence. Gov. George E. Pataki, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and New Jersey acting Gov. Richard Codey also addressed the crowd.
“We all stand together to help each other and to help those who need our help in the future,” Giuliani said. “We remember forever all the brothers and sisters that we lost on that day.”
In Washington, President Bush marked the anniversary with his wife on the White House’s south lawn, and thousands of people marched in remembrance of the attacks and in tribute to troops fighting overseas.
And in southwestern Pennsylvania, about 1,000 people attended a memorial service in the field where Flight 93 crashed after it was hijacked by terrorists.
