The memorial opened on September 11, 2008, seven years after the attack.
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Nineteen suicide bombers belonging to the terrorist outfit al-Qaida hijacked four passenger jets and crashed them into the Twin Towers in NY, the Pentagon in Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. But they were keeping close to what are now traditions: moments of silence and tolling bells, an apolitical atmosphere and the hourslong reading of the names of the dead.
Four of those mark the exact times four hijacked planes were crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon near Washington D.C., and a Pennsylvania field.
The jewel in its crown is World Trade Center One, or Freedom Tower, which at 1,776 feet (the year of USA independence), or 541 meters, is the tallest building in the Western hemisphere, its lights visible for miles. The ceremony can be watched live on the Department of Defense website.
More than 340 firefighters and 60 police were killed on the that sunny Tuesday morning in 2001, in the worst attack on US soil since Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941.
Many of them died while running up stairs in the hope of reaching victims trapped on the towers’ higher floors.
In the attack, carried out by al-Quada, 24 Canadians were killed. “We miss him terribly”. But on the day itself, “bringing the focus back to why we did all this – which is to honor those that were lost – is something very intentional”, he said, as reported by Time.
The number of people that attend the ceremony has fallen over the years but many believe that this year holding special significance and the day falling during a weekend might draw more numbers.
James Johnson, a retired New York City police sergeant who is now police chief in Forest City, Pennsylvania, was there for the first time since he last worked on the rescue and recovery efforts in early 2002.
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump visited Ground Zero. FILE- In this September 11, 2015 file photo, Betsy Wolk of Columbia, Md., left, rests her chin against her husband, Herb Wolk, as they visit the bench dedicated to their son-in-law, Navy Lt. Darin Pontell, at the Pentagon. However, there are other lesser known memorials, such as the one in the Pentagon, where 184 victims lost their lives and another in the field in Stonycreek Township, near Shanksville. The two candidates had followed the custom of suspending all TV ads for the day.
The nation is still working to move past the tragedy.
People hold up photos of victims during a memorial service at the 9/11 memorial September 1, 2016 in NY. A service will be held at the Flight 93 National Memorial starting at 9:45 a.m. ET Sunday.
At Sunday’s memorial service in NY, surviving relatives stepped to the microphones in pairs at the spot where the towers once stood.
Nineteen hijackers died in the attack, later claimed by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, which led directly to the USA war in Afghanistan and indirectly to the invasion of Iraq.
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Players and coaches from around Major League Baseball are wearing caps with American flag patches to mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The United States responded to the attacks by launching a “war on terrorism”, invading Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from a power that harbored al-Qaeda terrorists and adopting the law the USA PATRIOT Act.
