NEW YORK — New York marked the sixth anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in somber ceremonies at Ground Zero on Tuesday morning. The ceremony began at 8:40 a.m. at a park near Ground Zero, just minutes before the time the first hijacked plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, eventually killing 2,750 people.
In addition to the New York ceremony where several thousand people attended, people across the country offered their prayers to the victims of the terror attacks which claimed 2,974 lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania — 2,750 at the World Trade Center, 40 in Pennsylvania and 184 at the Pentagon.
U.S. President George W Bush attended a private 7:30 a.m. prayer service at St John's Episcopal Church and held a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House.
At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told grieving family members the military will continue to pursue and defeat America's enemies, especially terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida, which instigated the attacks.
"Today the entire nation joins with you," Gates said. "You have never been and never will be alone in your sorrow."
In New York, presidential hopefuls, Republican Rudolph Giuliani and Democratic Sen Hillary Clinton joined the victims' families.
In an overcast New York, families of the 2,749 people killed when two planes plowed into the World Trade Center twin towers paid their respects near the site as rescue workers read the names of the dead, in what has now become an annual ritual.
With heads bowed, holding photographs of the dead and fighting to hold back the tears, relatives listened as the grim roll call was read out.
"We come together again as New Yorkers and as Americans to share a loss that can't be measured and to remember the names of those who can't be replaced," said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, opening the commemorations.
The day of the attacks six years ago was "a day that tore across our history and our hearts," he said.
In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where hijackers brought down United Airlines Flight 93 in a field after a passenger uprising, tributes were held to honor the 40 passengers and crew killed there.
The centerpiece of the commemorations in New York was more muted than in past years. For the first time, most of the New York commemorations were being held at a park near Ground Zero, the area where the Twin Towers once stood, and not on the site itself, where several new buildings are under construction.
The reading of the names paused for four moments of silence to mark the exact times that the planes hit the towers and when the massive buildings collapsed into piles of rubble and choking dust.
"We love you and we miss you," said one woman, mourning the loss of her brother. "You're still the best, Salvatore," added another, paying tribute to his fallen firefighter brother.
"We miss her and love her more than ever," three children said of their mother, a worker in one of the collapsed towers. "Michael you are our angel," added another of a firefighter friend. "God bless you."
Relatives of those killed then descended a ramp into the World Trade Center site, where they laid flowers and photographs in a small pool. The blustery and rainy weather contrasted to the clear blue skies on the day of the attacks.
The decision not to hold the ceremony at Ground Zero was a controversial one, but Bloomberg said Tuesday that people needed to accept change.
"The place where we used to hold this ceremony is now a construction site. This is probably the last year people will be able to walk down the ramp into the pit," dubbed Ground Zero Bloomberg told CNN ahead of the ceremony.
Giuliani's presence at the ceremony had sparked criticism from some of the families of those killed, given his presidential ambitions.
Giuliani has made much of his role as mayor in the aftermath of the attacks, but firefighters especially have criticized the city's response to the disaster and have accused Giuliani of making political capital out of the attacks.
In the evening, a "Tribute in Light" was to project two massive beams of light into the night sky above Ground Zero to symbolize the collapsed towers.
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