NEW YORK — Solemnly honoring victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks, President Barack Obama hugged survivors, thanked the heroes of one of the nation’s darkest days and declared Thursday that the killing of Osama bin Laden after all these years was an American message to the world: “When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”
On a brilliant blue-sky day, one of reflection more than celebration, Obama offered New Yorkers a moment of their own. Standing at the construction site of ground zero, where a memorial now rises, the president laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers for the nearly 3,000 who died as he marked a turning point for the nation and this city.
For Obama, the day was about the importance of being in New York in the aftermath of the successful raid to find and kill bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader.
On this special ground, Obama never mentioned bin Laden’s name. Still, this was where the terrorist inflicted his greatest damage on a similarly sunny day in 2001 when two hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Center. Nearly 200 other people died when a third airliner hit the Pentagon — Vice President Joe Biden led a ceremony there Thursday, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attended — and 44 others were killed when a fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field.
Enthusiastic, emotional New Yorkers waited on streets to see the president, but there were few displays like the more raucous exuberance of a few days earlier. There were happy faces, shouts of “USA! USA!” and flags waved in the crowd, but there also was heavy security and most people were cordoned off blocks from where the president could be seen.
Days after the attacks, President George W. Bush stood here with firefighters and a bullhorn. There was a different feel a decade later as another president paid his respects. Obama met with firefighters, then police, before having a solemn moment at ground zero and meeting privately with families of those who died.
“This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day,” the president said at Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9.
The firehouse lost 15 firefighters on 9/11. The fire crews gave him hearty applause.
Obama said the American pursuit of the terrorist leader “sent a message around the world but also sent a message here back home that when we say we will never forget, we mean what we say, that our commitment to making sure that justice is done is something that transcended politics, transcended party.”
On Thursday, the National Day of Prayer, the president closed his eyes and clasped his hands at the memorial where the twin towers once dominated the Manhattan skyline.
