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'Heavy hearts' at Ground Zero
11/09/2006 07:32 - (SA)
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| President George W Bush and first lady wife Laura Bush lay a memorial wreath in a pool of water at Ground Zero. (Seth Wenig, AP) |
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Jennifer Loven
New York - President George W Bush and his wife Laura stood in sombre silence on Sunday after laying wreaths at the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Centre once stood.
He later pledged to make the anniversary "a day of renewing resolve" to remember the lessons of the September 11 terror attacks.
The Bushes set floral wreaths adrift in reflecting pools that mark the former locations of the north and south towers at the beginning of a two-day fifth-anniversary tour that will take them to all three sites of devastation.
They made a slow procession down a long ramp lined with a flag-bearing honour guard made up of firefighters and policemen, making their way four or five stories below ground level.
'Heavy heart'
Uttering no words, the Bushes walked hand-in-hand on the floor of the cavernous pit with bagpipes wailing in the background.
Afterward, the Bushes attended a service of prayer and remembrance at nearby St Paul's Chapel, greeted firefighters at a firehouse overlooking Ground Zero and toured a private museum next door that is dedicated to September 11 victims' families.
"Laura and I approach tomorrow with a heavy heart. It's hard not to think about people who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001," Bush told reporters outside the firehouse, which was destroyed in the attack and rebuilt. "I just wish there were some way we could make them whole."
'A day of renewing resolve'
Bush also called Monday's anniversary "a day of renewing resolve".
"I vowed that I'm never going to forget the lessons of that day," he said, still clutching his wife's hand. "There is still an enemy out there who would like to inflict the same kind of damage again."
They were the first stops of nearly 24 hours of observances at the three sites where terrorists wrought death and destruction and transformed his presidency.
Plans for anniversary
On Monday, he was to visit with firefighters and other first responders at a firehouse in lower Manhattan; attend a ceremony at the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes hurtled to the ground; and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon.
Like at ground zero, Bush did not plan to participate in the official anniversary observances at the other crash sites, intending to avoid the distraction that accompanies a presidential appearance.
He was ending Monday with a prime-time address from the Oval Office.
- AP
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