NEW YORK -- If last year's terrorist attacks crippled the Big Apple, yesterday's Sept. 11 anniversary signified its resurrection. With the debris now cleared, some 60,000 people gathered around the site of the World Trade Center to confront their grief, but also to honor those lost in the attacks.
The day opened with a bagpipe procession through the city streets, followed by a statewide moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., when the first plane hit exactly one year ago.
In a separate ceremony held at Ground Zero and open only to family and friends of victims, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led a reading of the names of the more than 2,800 who died there last year.
"It's a somber memorial for the events that took place," said Michael Hayes, whose family member Phil Hayes died in the collapse of the WTC. "It's a somber memorial, but a necessary one, because we can never forget what happened there."
Michael Hayes said that Phil Hayes, a retired fireman who worked at the WTC, managed to escape the tower, but returned to help save 30 children successfully.
According to the transcript of a speech by Mayor Michael Bloomberg previewing the day's events, family members for the first time were allowed to go to the lowest level of the WTC site. There they offered roses that eventually will be incorporated into a permanent memorial on the site.
"They will have the opportunity to remember their loved ones on what many consider sacred ground," Bloomberg said.
While the ceremony offered closure to the bereaved, other New Yorkers gathered outside the site to remember how the tragedy affected them.
"Something of this magnitude takes a long time to heal," one man said. "At least being in a crowd of people, where you can feel the energy -- it definitely helps."
Spectators recalled in horrific detail the sound the planes made when they struck the buildings, the experience of seeing people jump and the smell that lingered for days after.
"In [the district of] Chelsea the next day, it was so quiet," said WTC volunteer Chui Sim. "I've never seen the city like that."
Though the memories still are fresh in the minds of many, some residents said they had moved on.
"This is New York. Stuff happens in New York," said City Police Officer Lonnie Johnson of the 28th precinct. "No matter how catastrophic, things just keep on moving. It's a fast city."
Some city residents have turned remembering the World Trade Center into a commercial enterprise. Street vendors sold T-shirts with images of the WTC, while posters and snow globes representing the former landmark were available in any tourist shop.
"I've been buying postcards with pictures and stuff of the towers," said Neal Eisenberg of California, who grew up in New York and met his mother Anita for the Sept. 11 commemoration in the city.
"Eventually, you start imagining they were never there," he said.
As a part of yesterday's program, New York Gov. George Pataki read the Gettysburg Address.
The address that Abraham Lincoln first delivered on the "hallowed ground" of Gettysburg battlefield resonated in many ways with New Yorkers' experience in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
"It stood a lot for what we're doing right now," said Anita Eisenberg, Neal's mother. "We're gonna show them that we're not giving up."
Other ceremonies observed throughout the day included evening candlelight vigils in each of the city's five boroughs, and a visit by President Bush, during which he addressed the nation from Ellis Island.
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