NEW YORK - Americans observed a moment of silence at the very hour and place of the first Sept. 11 attack on Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of a day remembered with solemnity and ceremony.
Speaking near Ground Zero, where the twin World Trade Center towers were destroyed by hijacked planes on Sept. 11, 2001, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told families of those who died: "Six years have passed and our place is still by your side."
Rain fell on the somber ceremony as some wore funereal black to remember the 2,750 people killed when the towers were destroyed one after the other. Their names were due to be read out loud over four hours.
Similar ceremonies were taking place in Washington, where the Pentagon was attacked by a third plane, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a fourth plane crashed after passengers fought with al Qaeda hijackers that day.
Bagpipes played, accompanied by a steady drum beat, in a New York city park neighboring the former disaster site which is now a busy construction zone.
The first of four New York moments of silence -- followed by the ringing of church bells -- took place at 8:46 a.m. (1246 GMT), the hour the first plane struck. Other moments were set for when the second plane struck and when each tower fell.
Sept. 11 fell on a Tuesday again for the first time since 2001, yet another reminder of the day.
While Americans mourned, al Qaeda released another video on Tuesday, following one last week in which Osama bin Laden called on Americans to embrace Islam to avert war.
The new, 47-minute video featured only a still picture of bin Laden -- no moving video -- while he eulogizes one of the 19 hijackers, Waleed al-Shehri, as a rare and magnificent man.
