Americans commemorated 9/11 with solemn ceremonies and vowed Wednesday to "never forget" 18 years after the deadliest terror attack on American soil.
Victims' relatives assembled at ground zero, where the observance began with a moment of silence and the tolling of bells at 8:46 a.m. – the exact time a hijacked plane slammed into the World Trade Center's north tower.
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Elsewhere around the country, President Donald Trump laid a wreath at the Pentagon, saying: "This is your anniversary of personal and permanent loss." Vice President Mike Pence spoke as well, at the third crash site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania during a ceremony commemorating the downing of Flight 93.
"Passenger Jeremy Glick called his wife and told her that they had planned to storm the cockpit," he said on the grounds where Flight 93 was downed when passengers fought back the terrorists in an attempt to prevent the hijacked plane from crashing into the White House or another government building in Washington DC.
"Flight 93 plummeted to the Earth right here," Pence said emotionally as he looked out onto the fields.
"Those 40 people are also carved into the hearts of the American people. The American people will never fail to be inspired by the courage of those on flight 93. We will do as they did ... in all our very roles to prevent such evil from ever happening again," he said.
"We did not start this war, we did not seek it but in every year that has passed, our forces have taken this war to our enemies, on their soil. The threat of terrorism remains, and I can assure you that under our commander in chief that our administration will never rest until this earth is purged from the radicalism of Islamic terror. The American people's love of peace, is exceeded only by our resolve to freedom," said Pence.
The nation is still grappling with the aftermath of 9/11. The effects are visible from airport security checkpoints to Afghanistan, where the post-9/11 US invasion, as part of a NATO coalition, has become America's longest war.
Earlier this week, Trump called off a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban and Afghan government leaders and declared the peace talks "dead." As the Sept. 11 anniversary began in Afghanistan, a rocket exploded at the US Embassy just after midnight.
The political legacy of the 9/11 flowed into the ground zero ceremony, too.
After reading victims' names, Nicholas Haros Jr. used his turn at the podium to tear into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over her recent "Some people did something" reference to 9/11.
"Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done," Haros, who lost his mother, Frances, said as he reminded the audience of the al-Qaida attackers.
"Our constitutional freedoms were attacked, and our nation's founding on Judeo-Christian values was attacked. That's what 'some people' did. Got that now?" he said to applause.
The anniversary ceremonies center on remembering the nearly 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes slammed into the trade center, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
All those victims' names are read aloud at the ground zero ceremony by loved ones – now, quite often, ones too young to have known their lost relatives.
"Uncle Joey, I wish I got to know you," Joseph Henry said of his uncle and namesake, firefighter Joseph Patrick Henry.
Others made a point of spotlighting the suffering of firefighters, police, and others who died or fell ill after exposure to the smoke and dust at ground zero.
Sept. 11 has become known as Patriot Day, it is also a day of service. People around the country volunteer at food banks, schools, home-building projects, park cleanups and other charitable endeavors on and near the anniversary.
