(The following story by John Valenti appeared on the Newsday website on September 11.)
NEW YORK — Under gray, cloud-filled skies and in intermittent rain, heavy at times, mourners slowly gathered Tuesday morning near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan for ceremonies to honor the dead killed in the horrendous terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Watch live video of the ceremony.
Some carried umbrellas decorated with American flags. Some had laminated pictures of loved ones pinned to their shirts. Most carried photos or posters of someone lost in the attacks. The mood was somber.
Marking the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks that toppled the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers and killed 2,750 people, New York City’s emotional commemoration service at Zuccotti Park, near Liberty Street and Trinity Place in the shadow of Ground Zero, began at 8:40 a.m. The ceremony is expected to last almost four hours.
Mourners began to arrive at the site shortly after 7 a.m.
Members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus opened the commemoration ceremony with the Star Spangled Banner.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for the first moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. in observance of the time the first plane struck the north tower — as bells tolled for the attack victims in houses of worship throughout the city. Then began the roll call of names of those killed in the attacks, names to be read throughout the morning by 118 pairs — 236 — emergency responders, each reading approximately 12 names of those killed.
A second moment of silence will take place at 9:30 a.m., the time the second hijacked plane struck the south tower.
The fall of the south tower will be observed with a moment of silence at 9:59 a.m.
The fall of the north tower will be marked by a moment of silence at 10:29 a.m., officials said.
All around the site of the commemoration were moving reminders of the lost. One wreath was from Engine 235, Battalion 57, FDNY. The photos of six fallen firefighters were attached to it.
The New York Fire Department lost 343 firefighters in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Brooklyn-based Engine 235, Battalion 57, lost those six — the Monroe Six. Next to the wreath a navy blue T-shirt commemorated their loss, reading simply: “In Memory of the Monroe Six.”
These were the somber, chilling reminders that could be found anywhere and everywhere you looked Tuesday.
“We’re here to respect the people who were lost,” Fred Morrone, 50, of Lindhurst, N.J., said as he stood in the rain.
Morrone is a member of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey pipe and drum corps. His cousin, Fred Morrone, was director of the Port Authority. Morrone was killed on 9/11.
“We’ll be here as many times as it takes,” he said. “We won’t forget. It’s like it happened yesterday. It’s hard to deal with, but you gave to deal with it.”
Another one of the mourners had traveled a much greater distance to remember the loss.
Chukwudum Ikeazor had come from across the pond — traveling with a group of 40 officers from the metropolitan police in London.
“We’re here,” Ikeazor said, “to show solidarity with New Yorkers. We’ve done this the last five years. It’s a common front we have against terror. We’re police officers.”
This is the first year that the ceremonies have moved away from the area known as “The Pit,” the site at Ground Zero where the Twin Towers stood until that September morning in 2001. The commemoration was moved because construction has begun in “The Pit” on the new Freedom Tower. The foundation of the tower is already in place, and on Tuesday morning, a large American flag hung there. The sign of construction activity is everywhere, with piles of dirt and sand all around.
On Tuesday morning, as the ceremonies continue, families will be allowed to walk down the ramp into “The Pit” to place flowers around a circular pool that has been erected at the base of the ramp, with two six-foot squares in its center — the squares symbolizing the footprints of the Twin Towers.
People will be able to take roses from buckets at the top of the ramp — the flowers are a dazzling array of colors: yellow, orange, pink, red, white and purple — and then carry them down the ramp to lay them in place.
Later, flautist Emily Thomas is scheduled to perform “Amazing Grace.” The Brooklyn Youth Chorus also will perform a rendition of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Three trumpeters — one member each from the New York City Police Department, the New York City Fire Department and Port Authority Police — will play taps.
For the observance, streets throughout lower Manhattan will be closed. Street closures include: Liberty Street between Broadway and Greenwich Street; Thames Street between Broadway and West Street; Albany Street between Broadway and West Street; Cedar Street between Broadway and Church Street-Trinity Place; Church Street-Trinity Place between Battery Place and Barclay Street; Cortlandt Street between Broadway and Church Street; Dey Street between Broadway and Church Street; Fulton Street between Broadway and Church Street; and, Vesey Street between Broadway and Church Street.
Zuccotti Park will be closed, as will the Liberty Street Bridge. There is no parking allowed on Barclay Street between Broadway and Church.
(Staff writers Sophia Chang, Karla Schuster and Christina Hernandez and Daniel Massey contributed to this story.)