NEW YORK — The nation’s most extravagant display of July Fourth fireworks Monday was a triumphant celebration that turned solemn briefly to commemorate the 10-year mark since the Sept. 11 attacks. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world streamed to Manhattan’s West Side to see the pyrotechnics show over the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, featuring more than 40,000 shells exploding in choreographed, multicolored progression.
“It’s beautiful,” said Rosa Riveras, 57, a health educator from northern Manhattan, as bursts of light filled the sky. “It’s amazing. I’m loving it.”
Beth Cochran of Scottsdale, Ariz., was with two friends from Fishkill, N.Y. The group of three periodically broke into “God Bless America” and other patriotic songs.
“We do not take friendship or freedom for granted,” said Cochran, wearing an American flag tank top. “I’m proud to be an American.”
The show, sponsored by Macy’s, paid tribute to the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty’s debut in New York Harbor. Fireworks blasted off from six barges along the river to heights of 1,000 feet.
All across the country, Americans marked the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with parades, fireworks and barbecues.
Thousands showed up near the Washington Monument to eagerly await the annual fireworks show on the National Mall, while others were throwing on Hawaiian shirts and shorts to ski the still-snowy slopes at resorts from California to Colorado.
In Boston, the annual Boston Pops concert was a must. In Akron, Ohio, the Rib, White & Blue Food Festival was enticing. And then, there were Nevada’s casinos, which promised a pyrotechnics extravaganza that could be a gambler’s best bet.
At the mountaintop home to Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Va., officials continued a nearly five-decade-old tradition of swearing in new U.S. citizens.
Seventy-seven people took their oaths during a naturalization ceremony at Monticello.
Some of the Republicans hoping to replace President Barack Obama in the White House campaigned in states where presidential politics are as much a part of the holiday as fireworks and barbecues. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota marched in a parade in Clear Lake, Iowa. In New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman both marched in the Amherst parade.
Businessman and GOP hopeful Herman Cain skipped the parades but threw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game in Manchester, N.H.
“Aside from the politicking and the handshaking and the enthusiasm that our campaign is determined to generate in this state, we’re going to reflect on what it means to be an American,” Huntsman said. “To share inalienable rights, to share our constitutional privileges.”
