People gathered Saturday at the three sites where terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001, with leaders, survivors, and more paying tribute and mourning the fallen 20 years later.
Ground zero in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, hosted memorials with survivors and top U.S. officials in attendance. Lectors read the names of each of the 2,977 people killed in the attacks.
President Joe Biden began the day visiting the memorial in Manhattan alongside former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and their wives, former first ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York were also in attendance, surrounded by a crowd of people hoisting American flags and images of deceased loved ones.
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“As we carry these 20 years forward, I find sustenance in a continuing appreciation for all of those who rose to be more than ordinary people,” said Mike Low, the father of Sarah Elizabeth Low, a flight attendant whose plane crashed into the World Trade Center.
Biden later visited Shanksville, where Vice President Kamala Harris, former President George W. Bush, and former first lady Laura Bush joined a memorial service remembering those whose hijacked plane crashed into an open field there. Speakers recalled the determination of passengers on United Airlines Flight 93, who charged the cockpit in hopes of regaining control of the airplane, which eventually crashed into the empty field.
“The passengers and crew members joined together and decided to fight back. In a moment of terrible uncertainty, they were determined to control their fate,” said Stephen Clark, the superintendent of the National Park Service’s sites in western Pennsylvania.
In Shanksville, Bush delivered remarks warning of domestic extremism and “malign force” dividing the United States.
“We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within,” he said. “There is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home, but in their disdain for pluralism, in their disregard for human life, in their determination to defile national symbols, they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them.”
Bush’s remarks were celebrated by Biden, who echoed the former president’s calls for national unity.
In northern Virginia, memorial-goers gathered outside the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed on 9/11, killing 184 people.
“We must ensure that all our fellow Americans know and understand what happened here on 9/11 and in Manhattan and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a retired Army general who led troops during the post-9/11 invasion of Iraq. “It is our responsibility to remember, and it is our duty to defend democracy.”
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Former President Donald Trump, a New York native, said he will visit ground zero in Manhattan on Saturday to mark the 20th anniversary.
