another moment in history where we should "never forget"

from AP wire service-
NEW YORK (AP) -- On the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, dignitaries, community leaders and relatives of victims stood at ground zero and gave voice to the names of the dead. Last year, the children of victims took up that task.

And on Saturday, once again, the names of the 2,749 people lost in the World Trade Center attack were to be read aloud -- this time by parents and grandparents of those lost in the attacks three years ago.

Like both times before, the ceremony will pause four times for moments of silence, marking the exact minute of each plane crash and tower collapse.

Nancy Brandemarti, who has never attended the Ground Zero remembrance, will read a poem for her son, Nicky Brandemarti, a financial analyst who died just weeks before his 22nd birthday.

"Every day is hard, but this day is a little bit harder," she said. "This day is just a day to think about him."

After the first moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., names will be read in alphabetical order, pausing at 9:03, 9:59 and 10:29 a.m.

At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed that day by another hijacked plane, officials were to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence. In Pennsylvania, bells will toll across the state at the minute the fourth plane went down, killing the 40 passengers and crew killed aboard Flight 93.

Nationwide, communities will observe September 11 in their own ways, with services at local firehouses, memorial dedications, bell-ringing events and flag ceremonies.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was scheduled to participate in the ground zero remembrance, said parents and grandparents were asked to lead the ceremony because the city wants to "acknowledge their great sacrifice and thank them for helping all of us to shoulder the loss."

His predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey were also expected to deliver readings.

During the ceremony, families will be able to walk down a ramp to the footprints of the towers. The area, seven stories below street level, is considered sacred ground by many. It was there that rescue workers combed the debris with rakes, painstakingly searching for the tiniest fragments of human remains.

Three years later, work still continues to identify the 20,000 pieces of human remains that were recovered. The medical examiner's office has identified about 1,570 victims, or just 60 percent.

They do not expect to match the remains of every victim because some remains were too badly damaged to yield readable DNA, and some people were essentially vaporized in the fiery collapse.

Meanwhile, much has changed at the 16-acre site.

By the first anniversary, the debris of the 110-story towers had been cleared, but there was little activity there other than construction that had begun to replace commuter train tracks. By the second anniversary, the train station was nearly complete, and it opened last November.

The redevelopment of the site has seen another major step in the last year -- the laying of the cornerstone for the 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower, the skyscraper expected to be completed by 2009. The 20-ton slab of granite was laid at the site in a July 4 ceremony this summer.

Victims were to be honored at several other events in New York City on Saturday, including a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral for fallen firefighters and the dedication of a memorial to Staten Island victims at the ferry terminal across the harbor from the trade center site.

At sundown, light beams that evoke the twin towers will be projected upward from a lot near the site, to remain on through the night. The memorial lights were first seen on March 11, 2002, to mark six months since the attack, with a plan to light them each year for the anniversary.