Two months after hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center, President Bush paid silent homage at Ground Zero today to the thousands who "still lie in a tomb of rubble."
As wisps of smoke continued to drift from the remains of the pulverized twin towers, Bush and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan listened as the names of 86 nations that lost citizens on September 11 were read aloud.
Two by two, uniformed members of the US military services carried flags up to the official podium, adding them to a line of standards snapping in a brisk wind.
Representatives of the Muslim, Jewish and Catholic faiths offered prayers and remembrances. Mr Bush, who did not make remarks at the somber ceremony, added his signature to a Wall of Nations, along with the words: "Good will triumph over evil. May God bless you all."
Mr Bush paid tribute earlier today to the spirit of New York at a Veterans Day observance, where he held up a badge belonging to a firefighter killed at the World Trade Center and recognized his widow as "a veteran of September 11."
At the 7th Regiment Armory on Park Avenue, Mr Bush, flanked by the elite of New York Republican politics, including Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg, and Governor George Pataki, said Americans looked "a little differently" at their veterans this year.
"We pay tributes on Veterans Day, today," Mr Bush said. "And they're made with a little greater feeling, because Americans have seen the terrible harm that an enemy can inflict."
Unity was the theme, even in a city that voted overwhelmingly Democratic in last year's White House election.
"Mr President, this city is united. As Americans, we're also united behind you as our leader," Mr Giuliani said. "I want you to know that this city that didn't vote for you is in love with you and you're doing an absolutely great job."