By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
LOWER MANHATTAN — Under a clear blue sky that recalled a September morning nine years earlier, hundreds of people remembered the victims of 9/11 at the city’s annual ceremony in Zuccotti Park Saturday morning.
Vice President Joe Biden joined Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Paterson and other local officials in the shadow of the World Trade Center site as family members and those helping to build the 9/11 memorial read the names of all 2,752 people who were killed at Ground Zero nine years ago.
The ceremony paused four times for moments of silence, marking the time the North and South Towers were struck, and the times they fell. Church bells throughout the city tolled at 8:46 a.m., when the first plane hit the North Tower.
Many of the name readers began to cry as they came to the name of their relative.
"We deeply feel the void you left in our lives," said one woman who lost her brother.
Others gave shoutouts to their relatives' passions, from the Mets to Star Wars, or they asked the victims to look after more recently deceased family members.
Edward Henry, whose brother Joseph Patrick Henry was killed in the attacks, said none of his brother’s remains had ever been recovered.
“That’s why we’re going to be here every single year,” Henry told the gathered crowd.
Starting early Saturday morning, the victims’ relatives filed quietly into Zuccotti Park carrying flowers and photos of loved ones. The family members were also allowed into the World Trade Center site to pay their respects at the future memorial, which is now under construction.
Musical selections during the ceremony included Kristin Chenoweth performing “Borrowed Angels” and the Young People’s Chorus performing “Keep Me in Your Heart.”
Three trumpeters, from the FDNY, NYPD and Port Authority Police Department, concluded the event with the sounding of Taps.
Supporters and opponents of Park51, the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, plan to protest nearby later in the day.
Many 9/11 family members have asked the protesters to cancel the demonstrations out of respect for the dead, a sentiment echoed by some of those who stood in Zuccotti Park Saturday morning waiting for the ceremony to start.
Alyson Low, 39, who traveled from Arkansas to pay tribute to her 28-year-old sister, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, held a sign reading, "Today is ONLY about my sister and the other innocents killed nine years ago."
"I'm tired of talking about everything else," Low said. "No politics. No religion."
But Nick Chiarchiaro, 68, a New Jersey resident whose wife was killed in Tower 1, opposes the mosque and said the protests didn't bother him.
"This is what makes America great — you can do whatever you want," Chiarchiaro said. "You want to rally today, rally today; I don't care. I'll walk right past."
