On Thursday, a day as bright and blue as the terrible one 24 years ago, the families of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks gathered by the reflecting pools and the flags and the engraved names in lower Manhattan to remember those they lost.

At a ceremony grown familiar yet still heart-wrenching, the memorial site once called Ground Zero fell silent at 8:46 a.m., marking the time when a hijacked plane struck the north tower.

A moment passed with only the sound of the rushing water of the waterfalls into the reflecting pools. Then a firefighter rang a single bell that was joined by the pealing of church bells throughout the city.

Next came the names of the dead, a list read by sons, daughters and other loved ones. The list was so long — nearly 3,000 men and women — it took hours

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