Sept. 11 commemorations at 3 crash sites

A look at events in New York City, Washington and Shanksville, Pa., marking the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks:

NEW YORK CITY

In a sadly familiar ceremony, friends and relatives of World Trade Center attack victims gathered at the National Sept. 11 Memorial plaza to call out the names of the dead and read messages to lost loved ones. A bell chimed to mark the moments when four hijacked jets crashed into the twin towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, and again to mark the moments when the two skyscrapers collapsed. Several politicians attended, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York Gov. George Pataki, but none gave an address. The ceremony also recognized victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama held a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. on the White House’s South Lawn to mark the first attack in New York. He was joined by Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden. A bugler played “Taps.” Then, the president traveled to the Pentagon Sept. 11 memorial in Arlington, Va., where victims’ families, attack survivors and military officials laid a wreath and held a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m. to mark the moment that Flight 77 hit the building. Obama said, “Our hearts still ache for the futures snatched away, the lives that might have been.” Pentagon employees were to attend a separate event at 1 p.m. in the complex’s courtyard.

PENNSYLVANIA

More than 200 people gathered at the Flight 93 National Memorial to read the names of 40 passengers and crew killed when the airliner crashed into a field near the small town of Shanksville. Recalling the passengers and crew who had fought the hijackers, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told the assembled families and spectators, “We never know when we’ll be called to lay down our lives for others.”