The families assembled at ground zero
again, the place where nearly 3,000 peo-
ple died on that bright September morn-
ing. There was grief again, and the
mournful sound of bagpipes echoed
again. And there was the rhythm of
names of the dead being recited again.
It has been 18 years since terrorists
commandeered airplanes and the twin
towers of the World Trade Center were
brought down. The commemoration at
ground zero — by now an annual rite of
remembrance that follows a familiar,
somber script — began on Wednesday
with an honor guard carrying the flag.
Then, at 8:46 a.m., the time when the
first plane slammed into the north tower,
there was a moment of silence, the first of
six noting the strikes at the trade center
and the Pentagon, the plane crash in
Shanksville, Pa., and the collapse of the
twin towers in a blizzard of toxic dust and
flaming debris.
President Trump and the first lady,
Melania Trump, led a moment of silence
at the White House before going to the
Pentagon, where 64 people aboard a hi-
jacked American Airlines jet were killed,
along with 125 people in the building. The
president said that any terrorist who
comes to the United States would be met
with a force “the likes of which the
United States has never used before.”
Mr. Trump delivered his remarks at
the Pentagon days after canceling peace
talks with the Taliban, which ruled Af-
ghanistan in 2001 and provided a haven
for Al Qaeda, the terrorist group that hi-
jacked the planes in the attacks. In
Shanksville, Vice President Mike Pence
spoke at an observance celebrating the
heroism of the passengers aboard the
plane who took on the hijackers and sac-
rificed their lives.
At ground zero, some family members
brushed away tears as the names were
read. Some carried flowers or wore T-
shirts with names. Some held placards
above the crowd with images of their
loved ones.
Margie Miller went to find her hus-
band’s name, engraved in stone. She said
she always touches it.
Her husband, Joel, was 55 when he
died. He was an assistant vice president
at Marsh and McLennan, the manage-
ment consulting firm. His office was on
the 97th floor.
“This is his place, and it’s my place,”
Ms. Miller said. “It’s where I feel him. He
breathed here and he died here.”
La-Shawn Clark said this anniversary
was a particularly difficult one because
her husband — Benjamin Keefe Clark, an
executive with Fiduciary Trust Interna-
tional who was 39 and whose office was
on the 93rd floor of the south tower —
cannot share a milestone, the birth of
their first granddaughter, due next
month.
She said that for weeks after the at-
tacks, as the rescue and recover teams
did their work, she would call her hus-
band’s cellphone just to hear his voice,
recorded on the voice mail system. Wip-
ing away tears on Wednesday, she said
that she knew she would not get a call
back.
“There’s never closure,” she said, “but
when I come here, when the wind blows,
it’s like he’s kissing me.”
In the years since the attacks, those
who were children in 2001, like Ashley
Nelson, have grown up and found their
places in the world — a world that has
struggled to adapt to terror attacks. Ms.
Nelson was 6 years old in 2001. On
Wednesday she paid tribute as she stood
silently, her arms crossed, across the
West Side Highway from the ceremony.
“It helps me put things into perspec-
tive,” she said, even though she did not
know anyone who was killed in the at-
tacks. “The importance of rememberingthe people that lost their lives and who
sacrificed, that’s important to me.”
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor
Bill de Blasio attended the ceremony, as
did Michael R. Bloomberg, the former
mayor who is the chairman of the Na-
tional Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum,
and Raymond W. Kelly, a former New
York City police commissioner. Rudolph
W. Giuliani, who was heralded for his
leadership as mayor of New York when
the twin towers were attacked, recalled
the tragedy and valor of that day in a
tweet, saying, “We honor all who have
kept us safe.”
For the families whose relatives were
killed, the grief remains as piercing and
profound as ever. But for many New
Yorkers, the anniversary was just an-
other day — which, of course, was what
people thought the day of the attacks was
going to be. In the morning, children
went to school. Adults went to work. It
was Primary Day in New York. Some
stopped to vote on their way.
No one going through the revolving
doors or stepping into the elevators at
the trade center knew that it was the last
time they would ever do that.
Nor did anyone there know that “Sept.
11” was about to become one of those
dates that would summon personal
memories as powerful as those associ-
ated with Nov. 22, 1963, the Friday on
which President John F. Kennedy was
assassinated, or perhaps Jan. 28, 1986,
the Tuesday on which the space shuttle
Challenger exploded little more than a
minute after takeoff.
There are now 400 trees where the
rubble was in 2001. For the ceremonies,
loudspeakers were hung — carefully —
from many of the trees. The idea is that
the names being read should be heard
from anywhere on the memorial’s eight-
acre site.
From the first Sept. 11 commemora-
tion, long before a memorial and a mu-
seum paid tribute at the site, the reading
has been a meaningful ritual that recog-
nized each person caught in the tragedy
of that day. But something was different
this time: The 9/11 Memorial Glade, ded-
icated in May.
It honors another segment of the 9/11
community, those who were exposed to
toxins in the aftermath of the attacks —
people who worked in the twin towers
and escaped; police officers and fire-
fighters who went through rubble that
burned for more than three months; and
residents of Lower Manhattan who
breathed the same air. Some have devel-
oped chronic illnesses. Some have died.
The Glade, a series of large stone
“monoliths” inlaid with steel from the
original trade center, was dedicated on
another grim anniversary, the 17th anni-
versary of the official end of the recovery
mission at ground zero. At 13 to 18 tons
apiece, the monoliths were so heavy that
they had to be installed with two cranes
that lifted them over the tall white oak
trees on the plaza.
The platform for the readers stood in
the shadow of a One World Trade Center
that is no longer new — people took note
of its rise toward the sky at earlier cere-
monies, but the new One World Trade
Center opened five years ago, the obser-
vatory on its top floors more recently.Aaron Randle and Andrea Salcedo
contributed reporting.
Remembering 18 Years Ago With a Familiar Grief
Marika Shaub wiping away a tear while pausing to reflect near the World Trade Center on Wednesday. Those who died were honored in what has become an annual rite of remembrance downtown.
TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMESTears and Silence
At 9/11 Ceremonies
By JAMES BARRONBRITTAINY NEWMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMESBRITTAINY NEWMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES TODD HEISLER/THE NEW YORK TIMESRichard Esposito praying where
two relatives’ names are inscribed:
Frankie Esposito and Michael
Esposito, both firefighters. As
crowds gathered downtown, Jo-
sephine Strenta, of Toms River,
N.J., listened to a live-stream on
her phone nearby, below.
BRITTAINY NEWMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMESSome family members held placards aloft with images of their loved ones.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 A31
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