Wittreich left his home in New Jersey at 4:30 a.m. so that he would be able to get close enough the Ground Zero to hear—if not to see—the ceremonies firsthand.

“I just felt there was somewhere I needed to be today,” Wittreich said. “I felt it’s only going to happen once, and I’d rather be a part of it than working.”

Returning to the Site

The families were asked to arrive at Ground Zero as early as 6:30 a.m.

Red Cross volunteers handed out packs of tissues, as well as water and food, to the families and members of the crowd as they waited for the ceremony to begin.

Purple leis were given to the family members so they might wear them or leave them at the site. In Hawaii, in the event of a funeral or death, it is traditional to present a lei in place of a floral wreath.

Uniformed officers of every type also gathered at Ground Zero.

They were police officers, firefighters, Port Authority officers, sheriffs and rescue workers, to name a few.

Though most were from New York or New Jersey, they came from all over the nation—and the world—to show their support for those officers who perished in the line of duty on Sept. 11.

Firefighters and police officers in full uniform lined the east wall of the pit, where they observed the ceremony.

And officers from the K-9 Unit brought several special guests back to the site—the rescue dogs who were so instrumental in searching for the bodies of those lost in the attacks and lifting the spirits of rescue workers.

“We’re praying for you,” a man called out from the crowd as the officers began to assemble at the south end of the Ground Zero site.

Indeed, it was a day of prayer for New Yorkers and the world.

Priests, rabbis and Buddhist monks stood among the crowd, praying and comforting the victims’ families.

“We pray for the peace—we pray for those who died,” said a monk from the True Buddha Diamond Temple, located just south of Ground Zero, while taking a break from his chanting and incantations.