From The White House To The Streets; America Stands Tall To Pay Tribute To 9/11 Victims

President Obama has led moving tributes to the nearly 3,000 victims of 9/11 as America marks the 13th anniversary of the terror attacks. The Commander in Chief spoke outside the Pentagon, where 184 people lost their lives, on Thursday, while victims' families also gathered at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan and the memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed.

'It has now been 13 years,' Obama said. 'Thirteen years since the peace of an American morning was broken; thirteen years since nearly 3,000 beautiful people were taken from us; thirteen years of moments they would have shared with us; thirteen years of memories they would have made.'

But he paid tribute to the strength and the endurance of the families, survivors and Pentagon personnel who returned to work the next day, more determined than ever to keep America strong.

'As Americans, we draw strength from you,' he said. 'Your love is the ultimate rebuke to the hatred of those who attacked us that bright, blue morning... America stands tall and America stands proud... We will only grow stronger.' 

Today is also the first time the The National September 11 Museum - which includes gut-wrenching artifacts and graphic photos of the attacks - will be open to the public on an anniversary. Fences around the memorial plaza have come down, opening it up to the public and camera-wielding tourists.

But before the public is allowed inside, there is the traditional name-reading ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza for every one of the people who perished in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and inside the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania. The ceremony started at 8.46am, marking the moment the first plane hit the north tower.

During the ceremony, six moments of silence will also be observed to mark the strikes on the towers, the Pentagon, the collapse of the skyscrapers and the time Flight 93 went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

It comes after two blue columns of light representing the towers illuminated the skies over Lower Manhattan in a vivid tribute on Wednesday night. This Tribute in Light will shine through the night, beginning at sundown Thursday and ending early Friday.

The memorial plaza will be closed to the public for most of the day and available only to family members. It will reopen at 6pm, at which point thousands of New Yorkers are expected to mark the anniversary at the twin reflecting pools where the towers once stood.

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.

Photo Credit: AP / DailyMail / EPA