The three-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks gave friends, family members and victims in D.C. a chance to remember and mourn the nearly 3,000 innocents slain on that day in the attacks in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., and the nation's capitol.
At the White House, President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, along with Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynn Cheney, met on the south lawn at 8:46 a.m. for a moment of silence. That was the exact time when the first jet struck the World Trade Center.
Victims of the Pentagon attack were commemorated at the Arlington County Courthouse, where a bell tolled 184 times, once for each victim killed. Just prior to sunset, the Fairfax High School's acappella group sang the hymn "Amazing Grace" next to City Hall while a single bagpipe played in the distance.
In a ceremony at Arlington Cemetary, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told relatives and others gathered that "the wound that was opened three years ago will always be with us. We know that. Yet our grief has found its purpose. September 11th was a call to arms. And once again, brave men and women have deployed abroad to defend freedom."
For more information on the Arlington ceremony, please see page 2.
