Washington/New York - The seventh commemoration of the 2001 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York began Thursday morning with a nationwide solemn moment of silence at 8:46 am, the time that one of four hijacked passenger planes smashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York.
Family members of the more than 2,500 who died in New York gathered outside the site of Ground Zero, where the towers once stood, and prepared to descend into what is now a construction site.
Children of the dead and other relatives started reading the names of the victims.