America Marks 25 Years Since 9/11 as Families Return to Ground Zero

America Marks 25 Years Since 9/11 as Families Return to Ground Zero

_Families of those killed in the September 11 attacks gathered in New York on Friday to read their names, 25 years after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil transformed the country and reshaped global politics._

Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 people were killed in the September 11 attacks, their names were read again at the site where the World Trade Center once stood.

Families gathered at the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan on Friday for the 25th anniversary commemoration, continuing a tradition that has become one of the most solemn moments on New York's annual calendar.

The ceremony began at 8:40 a.m., with relatives of the victims reading the names of those killed in the attacks. Moments of silence marked the key moments of the morning of September 11, 2001, including when the two World Trade Center towers were struck and when they later collapsed.

The commemoration also remembered the six people killed in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

The anniversary is one of the most significant since the Memorial opened at Ground Zero, as the attacks move further from the generation that experienced them directly.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four passenger planes. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York, a third struck the Pentagon outside Washington, while passengers and crew aboard the fourth fought back before it crashed in Pennsylvania.

The attacks killed 2,977 people and set in motion events that would define American foreign policy for much of the next two decades.

The United States invaded Afghanistan weeks after the attacks, beginning a war that lasted almost 20 years. The administration of President George W. Bush later invaded Iraq in 2003, while Washington expanded its intelligence and counterterrorism operations around the world.

At home, airport security was transformed, surveillance powers expanded and the federal government created new institutions and laws aimed at preventing another large-scale attack.

The effects were felt outside America as well. The wars that followed 9/11 reshaped politics and security across the Middle East and South Asia, while counterterrorism operations became a major part of international security policy.

But at Ground Zero on Friday, the focus was once again on the people behind the number.

The 9/11 Memorial occupies the footprints of the Twin Towers. Two reflecting pools sit where the buildings stood, surrounded by bronze panels bearing the names of those killed.

Among them are 343 firefighters and 23 New York City police officers who died responding to the attacks, as well as paramedics, office workers, passengers and people who happened to be in or around the World Trade Center that morning.

The deaths did not end when the towers collapsed.

Thousands of first responders, volunteers and workers spent months at Ground Zero during the rescue, recovery and cleanup operation. Many later developed illnesses associated with exposure to dust and other hazardous substances at the site.

Those deaths are now part of the anniversary's remembrance.

The 9/11 Memorial's 25th anniversary programme included a tribute to people who have died from illnesses connected to the attacks and their aftermath, reflecting how the consequences of that morning have continued long after the physical site was cleared.

For younger Americans, meanwhile, September 11 has become an increasingly historical event.

People born after the attacks have no memory of the images that dominated television that day: the burning towers, the smoke rising over Manhattan and the collapse of the buildings that had been among the world's most recognisable landmarks.

The Memorial and Museum now serve an additional purpose - preserving those memories for people who did not live through them.

The Museum's collection includes photographs, recordings, personal belongings and objects recovered from the World Trade Center, while exhibitions examine both the attacks and their aftermath.

Twenty-five years later, the site itself has changed dramatically.

The towers are gone and the surrounding Lower Manhattan skyline has been rebuilt. One World Trade Center now rises above the area, while the Memorial pools mark the footprints of the buildings that once defined the skyline.

Yet the central ritual remains largely unchanged.

On Friday night, the annual Tribute in Light will once again project two beams into the New York sky, marking the places where the Twin Towers once stood.

A quarter-century after September 11, the attacks have become part of history.

For the families who lost someone that morning, however, the names remain personal.