7 Years Later, US Remembers 9/11

Americans marked the seventh anniversary of 9/11 with a heartfelt ceremony at Ground Zero and other solemn remembrances nationwide. Relatives of victims gathered in Lower Manhattan for readings from dignitaries and a recitation of the names of the dead. Later today, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain were due at Ground Zero to pay silent respects.

In Washington, President Bush led a brief White House gathering under threatening skies in observing the moment that served to shape his presidency. "Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day our world was broken," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a crowd in New York. "It lives forever in our history, a tragedy that unites us in a common story ... the day that began like any other and ended as none ever has." (More 9/11 attacks stories.)