NEW YORK - What began on September 11 with the scream of crashing jetliners, the roar of falling steel and the deaths of thousands, ended yesterday in a silence broken only by the tolling of bells, the wail of bagpipes and the sobs of those mourning the people they lost.
With an empty stretcher bearing a folded American flag, New York marked the end of the mammoth recovery of human remains and the ruins of the World Trade Centre with a brief ceremony, nearly nine months after two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, destroying them and killing more than 2800 people.
The empty stretcher symbolised those killed but whose remains were never found. More than 19,000 body parts were recovered but 1800 victims have yet to be identified.
At 10:29am (2.29am NZ time), the moment on September 11 the second of the 110-storey buildings collapsed in a pile of mangled and broken steel, concrete and glass, a firefighter tolled a bell in four sets of five chimes, the traditional code for a fallen comrade.
The 20-minute ceremony under a clear blue sky at what has become known as ground zero was a moving tribute to all of those connected to the site and many involved spoke of the city's determination to rebuild.
"It is really tough but we are going to build it again," said ironworker John Finamore, who first visited the site as a 6-year-old 37 years ago when his grandfather helped to build the towers.
"They are not going to take it away from us."
Although yesterday's ceremony saw the official end of the clean-up at the 6ha site, investigators will continue sifting through debris at the Staten Island landfill in the quest to identify more remains.
The New York Stock Exchange also observed two minutes of silence yesterday.
Police and fire department pipers and drummers marched behind the stretcher. A flatbed truck slowly rolled out the last 10m-long, 58-tonne steel girder to be removed from the site. The beam was wrapped in black muslin adorned with a bouquet of flowers and US flag.
The procession paused at the top of the ramp, buglers from the uniformed services played Taps and five New York Police Department helicopters flew in V formation overhead. The pipes and drums played America the Beautiful and the crowd applauded a procession of civilians and uniformed personnel for a full five minutes.
- REUTERS
Story archives:
Links: Terror in America - the Sept 11 attacks
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
New York wraps up salvage job
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