Sombre New York vows never to forget

On a cool, overcast day, thousands grieved where the Twin Towers once stood at a service for families of the dead, attended by President Barack Obama and former president George Bush.

Security was tight and roads were closed to traffic around the 9/11 memorial, making downtown Manhattan eerily quiet.

Firefighters held aloft a tattered American flag, retrieved from Ground Zero, and the Brooklyn Youth Orchestra sang the American National Anthem.

In the audience, relatives who lost loved ones in the attacks joined hands and wept. Many held photographs, flags and home-made tributes. Some wore T-shirts with the photographs of their dead relatives.

At 8:46am, the time the first plane struck the first tower, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg called for a minute’s silence. Church bells tolled across the city. The centrepiece of the service was the annual reading of the names of the dead by family members.

Relatives, including many young children, walked up to the podium to read out the names of the almost 3,000 victims, who came from 90 countries, including 67 from the UK. Some stood proud, others could hardly speak through their tears.

For many, it was the first time they had been to the site where their relatives were killed a decade ago after terrorists hijacked planes and flew them into the 110-storey towers.

Among them were up to 100 children whose mothers were pregnant with them when their fathers were killed.

Peter Negron, who was a child when his father Pete was killed, said: “I wish my dad had been there to teach me how to drive, ask a girl out on a date and see me graduate from high school and a hundred other things I can’t even begin to name.”

He described teaching his younger brother, who was two when their father died, the things his father had taught him – to do well at school, to be kind to others and how to throw a baseball.

Many wept as the husband and daughter of a woman killed in the attacks told of how she died because she kept going back into the Towers to help get other people out.

The ceremony at Ground Zero had minutes of silence marking when the planes hit the Twin Towers, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and when another crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers overcame the hijackers. There were other minutes of silence to mark the times when the Twin Towers collapsed.

The 9/11 memorial consists of two reflecting pools, each almost an acre in size, created in the footprints of the towers, ringed by the names of those who died. Names have been placed next to those of co-workers and friends, at the request of families.

Providing a backdrop to the memorial service was the sound of water cascading into the 30ft-deep reflecting pools.

After attending the service, families walked through the memorial. Some stood in silence, others embraced. Many took photographs and rubbings of the names of their relatives, etched in brass. One woman left the helmet of her firefighter husband, others kissed the names of relatives. Children left teddy bears. A group of retired firefighters and police hugged.

“They’re home, they’re all home now,” said Monica Iken, whose husband died in the attacks and who founded the charity September’s Mission.

Mr Obama and his wife Michelle held hands as they walked around the reflecting pools with former president Bush and his wife, Laura. Mr Obama touched the names of the dead, and spoke to some of the families.

There were emotional scenes across the city. New Yorkers attended memorial exhibitions, concerts and church services and gathered to pay tribute at locations across the city, from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to the Firefighters’ Monument on the Upper West Side. The FDNY lost 343 firefighters on 11 September 2001.

Just across the road from Ground Zero, St Paul’s Chapel had stayed open through the night. After reports surfaced of a “credible” al-Qaeda threat to New York, the minister at St Paul’s wondered whether people would stay at home. But thousands came throughout the day and night, to pray and reflect. Many had travelled far, some coming on foot after subway and bus services were suspended and rerouted during the official memorial service. They waited in long queues to get through the security checks around Ground Zero.

Outside St Paul’s Chapel, the railings were covered in white remembrance ribbons which fluttered in the breeze. On them, visitors from across America and beyond had written personal messages of condolence.

St Paul’s remained undamaged after the 9/11 attacks, despite being only a stone’s throw from where the towers fell.

It became a spiritual focus in the weeks after the attacks, providing food, clothing and a place to rest for the recovery and emergency workers and New Yorkers who were unable to return to their homes. The chapel held special remembrance services on Sunday, which spilled out into the churchyard.

Among those taking part in the many commemorative events in New York were choirs from Lothian and Borders and Tayside police forces. Dressed in black kilts, and singing songs including Lean On Me, Give Us Hope and Auld Lang Syne, the choirs attracted huge and emotional crowds.

On Saturday night they performed alongside the NYPD at the Town Hall, where the Scots received a standing ovation for their arrangement of Amazing Grace and The Star Spangled Banner.

“We are here to show Scotland’s compassion for those who lost their lives on 9/11,” said musical director, Chief Inspector Andrew Russel.

The 9/11 memorial, which opens to the public today, is expected to become one of the most visited sites in the world.