That ceremony will commence with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the moment the first plane struck the World Trade Center. The moment of silence will be followed by a reading of the Gettysburg Address by New York Gov. George Pataki.

Family members of victims will perform readings at 9:03 a.m. and 9:59 a.m. to mark the moment when the second plane struck and the moment when the South Tower collapsed, respectively.

During the ceremony, family members will be allowed to lay flowers or mementos on the floor of the Ground Zero site.

At 10:28 a.m., NYPD and Fire Department of New York buglers will play Echo Taps.

And at 10:29 a.m., bells will toll throughout the city in memory of the collapse of the North Tower.

This ceremony will be ended by a reading of the Declaration of Independence by New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey and the playing of patriotic music.

This evening, there will be a ceremony in Battery Park to light an Eternal Flame in “The Sphere,” a sculpture which sat atop the granite fountain at the center of the World Trade Center Plaza, and candle-lighting vigils throughout the five boroughs.

At the Heart of the Tragedy

Throughout the day yesterday, thousands visited the Ground Zero site.

They were New Yorkers, family members of the victims and visitors from foreign lands who came to show their support and see the site of the bloodiest day on American soil since the Civil War.

Reporters from around the world interviewed those gathered at the site and took photos of Ground Zero.

The visitors left flowers and trinkets and signed sheets of paper spread out on the floor of the viewing platform, leaving messages of sympathy, support and hope.

One visitor, a Virginia Beach chaplain who did not wish to be identified by name, said the trip was his eighth pilgrimage to Ground Zero.

The chaplain said he had volunteered at the Salvation Army tent at the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, the site where debris from the World Trade Center was transferred and sifted through in the search for the bodies of those lost on Sept. 11. He also spent time in the tent at Ground Zero last March, praying with relief workers.

Asked why he had traveled so far, the chaplain responded, in a quavering voice, “On 9/11, I stood in my living room watching the towers come down—and I knew I had to come.”