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An original WTC flag on display as The Star Spangled Banner was sung
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Hundreds of families gathered today on the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center site to commemorate the losses of September 11, 2001. Their lost loved ones, 2,749 firefighters, police officers, and Trade Center employees, each were called out by name by 99 parents and grandparents in a solemn ceremony.
The carefully orchestrated ceremony lasted more than three hours, with each reader keeping a deliberate, steady pace, and ending each reading by stating their loved ones' names, often adding a personal sentiment. "To the world you are a hero, to us, you are the world," Mary Novotny said about her son Brian Christopher Novotny.
The event began with the Young People's Chorus of New York singing "The Star Spangled Banner," as the flag that flew over the Trade Center until October 2001 was unfolded and displayed before the crowd of family members, FDNY, NYPD, and Port Authority Police Department members.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and New Jersey Governor James McGreevey each took the podium for brief readings, and paused at four points for moments of silence -- observing the times that the two planes struck each tower, and each tower's collapse. They were joined by three parents, who read poems and other entries from the Trade Center's "Family Center" tribute books.
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| Families gather at WTC bedrock |
Halfway through the readings of the names, singer Rosanne Cash, son of country singer Johnny Cash, sang "Danny Boy" while her husband, record producer John Leventhal, accompanied her on guitar.
The ceremony took place at street level just east of West Street. Family members were able to descend the ramp to the site's bedrock, where many of them laid flowers in and around a reflecting pool that marked the north tower's footprint. Because construction on the Freedom Tower will begin in coming months, officials believe this year's observance will be the last time that bedrock is exposed and opened for memorial services.
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| Families pause to read victims' names |
Around the site, Vesey Street was sealed off from general pedestrian traffic, though onlookers from outside the site's perimeter fence filled Liberty and Church Streets sidewalks -- listening to the names echoed from the site's pit, and watching as some family members released balloons upon hearing their loved ones' names.
Inside the fences, the Hagis family of Staten Island was taking part in the ceremony, donning matching t-shirts in honor of their son, brother, and father Steven Hagis. Hagis, whose father, Steve, was one of the readers, was an employee of Cantor Fitzgerald, stationed on the north tower's 105th floor. Just a week shy of his 32nd birthday, Hagis made his last contact with his sister Stacy on September 11, 2001 just after American Airlines flight 11 struck his building. He called to let his family know that he was okay at the time, though his floor was filled with smoke.
Asked how her brother would react to the commemoration ceremonies, she said, smiling softly, "He would hate this -- having his name written in stone after stone, plastered everywhere. He wasn't a limelight person." She added, however, that she and her family had attended every remembrance ceremony because they feel it is the best way to honor his life. "We spend every day thinking of him, remembering him," she said.
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| Stacy and Michael Hagis wear shirts honoring Steven Hagis |
The city's commemoration continues through the night, as "Tribute in Light," the twin skyward spotlights, illuminate Lower Manhattan from dusk until dawn.
A complete list of readers' and victims' names, along with background information about the ceremony's performers, can be found by clicking here.
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