Leaders in tears: Clinton and Laura Bush weep amid emotional Bush tribute as a nation begins ceremonies to remember 9/11

• America remembers the day 10 years ago when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon
• Bush and Clinton among guests at dedication in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, of memorial to Flight 93 hijackers
• Other memorials planned for Sunday in New York and Washington D.C. as nation mourns almost 3,000 victims

By Mark Duell

Last updated at 11:27 AM on 11th September 2011

George W. Bush has praised the 40 passengers and crew who fought back against their Flight 93 hijackers on 9/11 for carrying out what he described as one of the most courageous acts in U.S. history.
The former president was at a ceremony on Saturday dedicating a memorial at the nation's newest national park in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, as the U.S. marks the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks.
Americans will also come together on Sunday where the World Trade Center soared in Manhattan, New York, and in Washington D.C. where the Pentagon now stands as a fortress once breached.

Into the sky: The 'Tribute in Light' shines above lower Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty, and One World Trade Center, left, on Saturday in New York

Lights of remembrance: The Tribute in Light as seen from Liberty State Park, left, and a view of it over the Brooklyn Bridge on the right

Light fantastic: The Tribute in Light uses 88 powerful beams and has been running every year to mark the anniversary of the attacks

On the ground: National Guard troops stand at the World Trade Center as the tribute lights are turned on to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks on Saturday night

All ready: Water flows in the fountains of the National September 11 Memorial in New York on Saturday, ahead of the 10th anniversary of 9/11

The nation's focus will turn on Sunday to ceremonies at the Pentagon and in lower Manhattan for the dedication of the national September 11 memorial.

President Barack Obama planned to attend ceremonies at both sites, as well as the Pennsylvania memorial, and was scheduled to speak at a Sunday evening service at the Kennedy Center.

 

The New York ceremony begins at 8:30am local time, with a moment of silence 16 minutes later - coinciding with the exact time when the first tower of the World Trade Centre was struck by a hijacked jet.
And then, one by one, there will be the reading of names of the 2,977 killed on September 11 - in New York, at the Pentagon and in rural Pennsylvania.

Remembered: Former U.S. presidents George W. Bush, left, and Bill Clinton, right, and former first lady Laura Bush, centre, bow their heads during ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday

Crying: Former First lady Laura Bush, left, and Jill Biden, right, wipe tears away at the ceremony in Shanksville

Tears: Former U.S. president Bill Clinton wipes away a tear during ceremonies for the opening of the Flight 93 National Memorial and embraces Mr Bush

Vice President Joe Biden holds his head in his hand during the dedication ceremony of the permanent Flight 93 National Memorial

Vigil: Visitors move amongst candle-lit luminarias at the Wall of Names at phase 1 of the Flight 93 National Memorial near the crash site of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania

Where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood now lies two granite pools in its footprints with waterfalls cascading 30 feet below.

On Saturday night the 'Tribute in Lights' could be seen shining into the sky as a mark of remembrance of the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York.

It is believed the Flight 93 hijackers wanted to crash the plane into the Capitol in Washington D.C. where the House and Senate were both in session - but the aircraft never made it there.

Mr Bush said the cockpit storming ‘ranks among the most courageous acts in American history’ and former president Bill Clinton said the passengers and crew were ‘ordinary people given no time at all to decide’ what to do.

Serene: Views of the World Trade Center South Tower memorial pool at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. The names of the victims are etched into bronze panels that surround them

Protection: A Port Authority officer provides security at the South Pool at the World Trade Center construction site in New York. It will be unveiled to the victims' families on Sunday September 11

Mr Clinton likened the actions of those aboard Flight 93 to the defenders of the Alamo in Texas or the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago, who knew they were going to die.
'They gave the entire country an incalculable gift,’ Mr Clinton added. ‘They saved the capital from attack’ and avoided Al Qaeda’s a symbolic victory of ‘smashing the centre of American government.’
The remarks by Mr Bush and Mr Clinton drew standing ovations and loud cheers from the ceremony which drew about 5,000 people, including 4,000 invited guests including the crash victims' families.
Vice President Joe Biden was on hand to unveil the Wall of Names at the memorial - a set of 40 marble slabs, each inscribed with the name of a passenger or crew member who died.

Thoughtful: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama visit section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery on September 10, which contains service members killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars

Comforting: President Obama hugs a visitor as First Lady Michelle Obama watches during the visit to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington

Service: Flags are carried into St. Patrick's Cathedral during a memorial ceremony on Saturday to honor New York firefighters that were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center

Tribute from afar: U.S. soldiers from Task Force Bronco pause for a prayer in silence during a memorial ceremony to commemorate the 9/11 attacks, at a U.S. military camp FOB Shinwar in Afghanistan

Former first lady Laura Bush and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Biden, were both seen to wipe tears away at the ceremony.
‘The moment America's democracy was under attack our citizens defied their captors by holding a vote,’ Mr Bush said, referring to when those on the plane decided to try to overpower the hijackers.
‘The choice they made would cost them their lives,’ he added. Mr Bush was joined at the ceremony by the Reverend Daniel Coughlin, who was the U.S. House chaplain at the time of the attacks.

People walk through the Empty Sky memorial at Liberty State Park, in Jersey City, N.J., Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011, during the dedication of the memorial. Thousands gathered at a New Jersey park

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, lays a white rose on wreckage pulled from Ground Zero during the memorial dedication to the Empty Sky Memorial at Liberty State Park

Linking arms: To commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, people participate in the 'Hand-In-Hand 9/11' ceremony by holding hands for a moment of silence at 8:46am, the time that the north tower of the World Trade Center was hit

Comrades: James Wathen, right, from the Houston Fire Department in Texas attends a memorial service outside Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York

343: Firefighters carry a banner with the number of firefighters killed on 9/11, during a memorial ceremony to honor New York firefighters that were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center at St Patrick's Cathedral

Gordon Felt, president of the Families of Flight 93, whose brother Edward participated in the revolt by passengers and crew, described the memorial a ‘huge accomplishment’.
‘It's one that brings so much comfort to the families knowing, finally, that the sacred ground, the site where the flight came down and our loved ones rest in perpetuity, is finally protected,' he said.
Meanwhile, Americans will gather on Sunday to pray in cathedrals, lay roses before fire stations and remember the anniversary of the most devastating terrorist attacks since the nation's founding.

The weekend has been dedicated to remembrance, with hundreds of ceremonies across the country and around the globe, such as a memorial mass at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

In Brown City, Michigan, which has a population of about 1,300 and no direct link to the attacks, firemen plan to lay 343 roses on a 15,000-pound steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center.
Since venturing to New York in June to claim the beam and bring it home, the Michigan firefighters have finished building a brick plaza, lighted around the clock and crowned by three flagpoles.
Elsewhere, people joined hands on Saturday morning in lower Manhattan at Battery Park City.
President Obama has already been paying tribute to America's resilience and the sacrifice of its war, after he made a pilgrimage to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Saturday.

He was seen strolling with his wife, Michelle, among graves filled with dead from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars – and said the U.S. cannot be broken by terrorism ‘no matter what comes our way’.

Mr Obama held hands with his wife and hugged other visitors among rows of white tombstones from the long wars that he is winding down after more than 6,000 American troop deaths.
‘The terrorists who attacked us that September morning are no match for the character of our people, the resilience of our nation, or the endurance of our values,’ he said in a weekly address.

Mr Obama was a little-known state senator in Illinois at the time of the attacks, but now has the responsibility to help lead the nation in remembrance of a trauma 10 years on.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who gave the weekly Republican address, said the terrorists achieved their goal of killing Americans, but failed to destroy the U.S. spirit.
‘The country was not broken, but rather, it was more united in the days after September 11 than at any time in my lifetime,’ Mr Giuliani said.