Services are being held at Ground Zero, the Flight 93 memorial and at the Pentagon, as America pays tribute to those who lost their lives.Almost 3,000 people died when al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four planes, changing the landscape of the 21st century.
Families, rescue workers and politicians gathered today amid a mix of tears, applause and patriotic cheers of "U-S-A" at 9/11 memorials in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks brought special ceremonies at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field in Shanksville where the planes crashed. After reading a Psalm at the morning ceremony at the World Trade Center, President Obama arrived to applause and chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" at a wreath-laying ceremony in Shanksville at noon. There, he and first lady Michelle Obama shook hands and spoke with many members of the crowd gathered there.
In Virginia, family members and first responders held a moment of silence with Vice President Joe Biden to honor the time when American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.
Biden said that what took place after the plane struck the Pentagon "was far more remarkable than the damage inflicted in the building behind me" as Pentagon employees and first responders risked their lives to help those trapped by the plane's impact.
To applause, he declared, "I can say without fear of contradiction or being accused of exaggeration, the 9/11 generation ranks among the greatest our nation has ever produced. And it was born, it was born, it was born right here on 9/11."
In New York, the annual reading of the nearly 3,000 names was punctuated this year by family members' visits to the memorial fountains at the new 9/11 Memorial Plaza, in which the names of those killed are etched in bronze. Some placed a flag or flowers. One woman threw her arms on the name of her loved one, put her head down and sobbed. Many took paper and pencil and making an etching, as one might at a graveyard.
No Comment