Obama pays tribute to the strength of families who lost loved ones in 9/11 on the 13th anniversary of the attacks

                         

President Obama has led moving tributes to the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11 as the U.S. marks the 13th anniversary of the terror attacks. The Commander in Chief spoke outside the Pentagon on Thursday morning after he led a moment of silence outside the White House (center). Emergency personnel and victims' families also gathered at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan (left and right) to remember loved ones and for the traditional name-reading ceremony of every person who perished. A memorial service is also underway in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed.

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Rebuilding efforts at the site, where 2,753 people died, are nearing completion. The area, by turns a smoldering grave and an off-limits construction site for more than a decade, is now increasingly reconnected with the streets.
In May, when the museum opened in a ceremony attended by President Obama, the fences that had surrounded the plaza for years disappeared, as did the need for visitors to obtain a timed ticket. Now, thousands of people freely visit every day, from cellphone-toting travelers to workers on a lunch break, and those crowds will only swell further this year when One World Trade Center finally opens.
'The memorial and museum is extremely important to those impacted on 9/11,' said Mary Fetchet, whose son died in the attacks. 'And surrounding that memorial, lower Manhattan has been revitalized.'
But for some who lost loved ones in the attacks, the increasing feel of a return to normalcy in the area threatens to obscure the tragedy that took place there and interfere with their grief.   .

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