NEW YORK -- With tolling bells, personal tributes and tears, Americans looked back Monday on 9/11 at anniversary observances that stretched from ground zero to small towns.
People gathered at memorials, firehouses, city halls, campuses and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.
"For those of us who lost people on that day, that day is still happening. Everybody else moves on. And you find a way to go forward, but that day is always happening for you," Edward Edelman said as he arrived at ground zero to honor his slain brother-in-law, Daniel McGinley.
On Monday night, people tilted back their heads and stared up at the heavens on crowded sidewalk outside the Battery Tunnel for the Tribute in Light. The pillars of light stretched through the clouds and into the endless darkness beyond.
Earlier in the day, President Joe Biden attended a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage, Alaska. His visit, en route to Washington from a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the nation, however remote. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, in an attack that reshaped American foreign policy and domestic fears.
On that day, "we were one country, one nation, one people, just like it should be. That was the feeling - that everyone came together and did what we could, where we were at, to try to help," said Eddie Ferguson, the fire-rescue chief in Virginia's Goochland County.
It's more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Pentagon and more than three times as far from New York. But a sense of connection is enshrined in a local memorial incorporating steel from the World Trade Center's destroyed twin towers.
The predominantly rural county of 25,000 people holds not just one but two anniversary commemorations: a morning service focused on first responders and an evening ceremony honoring all the victims.
Other communities across the country paid tribute with moments of silence, tolling bells, candlelight vigils and other activities. In Iowa, a 21-mile (34-kilometer) march was began at 9:11 a.m. Monday from the Des Moines suburb of Waukee to the state Capitol. In Columbus, Indiana, 911 dispatchers broadcasted a remembrance message to police, fire and EMS radios throughout the 50,000-person city, which also held a public memorial ceremony.
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts raised and lowered the flag at a commemoration in Fenton, Missouri, where a "Heroes Memorial" includes a piece of World Trade Center steel and a plaque honoring 9/11 victim Jessica Leigh Sachs. Some of her relatives live in the St. Louis suburb of 4,000 residents.
"We're just a little bitty community," said Mayor Joe Maurath, but "it's important for us to continue to remember these events. Not just 9/11, but all of the events that make us free."
New Jersey's Monmouth County, which was home to some 9/11 victims, made Sept. 11 a holiday this year for county employees so they could attend commemorations.
RELATED | New Jersey honors lives lost in 9/11 terror attacks
As another way of marking the anniversary, many Americans do volunteer work on what Congress has designated both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
At ground zero, Vice President Kamala Harris joined other dignitaries at the ceremony on the National Sept. 11 Memorial plaza. The event doesn't feature remarks from political figures, instead giving the podium to victims' relatives for an hours-long reading of the names of the dead.
Reading the names of those lost "is the biggest honor of my life," said Gabrielle Gabrielli, who lost her uncle and godfather, Richard Gabrielle.
"We have to keep the memory of everybody who died alive. This is their legacy," she said. "This is the final resting place. It's sacred."
The Reading of the Names from Lower Manhattan:
Ceremonies Begin, and Reading of Last Names starting with A
Reading of Last Names Starting with B and moments of silence
Reading of Last Names beginning BA through BY
Reading of Last Names Starting with C and D
Reading of Last Names Starting with E through G
Reading of Last Names Starting with H through J
Reading of Last Names Starting with K and L
Reading of Last Names Starting with M through Ng
Reading of Last Names Starting with Ni through P
Reading of Last Names Starting with Q and R
Reading of Last Names Starting with S and T
Reading of Last names, Starting with U through Z and followed by the playing of Taps
About 1,100 victims have yet to have any remains identified.
Biden, a Democrat, was the first president to commemorate Sept. 11 in Alaska, or anywhere in the western U.S. He and his predecessors have gone to one or another of the attack sites in most years, though Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama each marked the anniversary on the White House lawn at times. Obama followed one of those observances by recognizing the military with a visit to Fort Meade in Maryland.
First lady Jill Biden laid a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon, where workers unfurled a giant American flag over the side of the building Monday morning.
Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, attended a ceremony at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked jets crashed after passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
The memorial site, run by the National Park Service, will offer a new educational video, virtual tour and other materials for teachers to use in classrooms. Educators with a total of more than 10,000 students have registered for access to the free "National Day of Learning" program, which will be available through the fall, organizers say.
"We need to get the word out to the next generation," said memorial spokesperson Katherine Hostetler, a National Park Service ranger.
ALSO READ: 9/11 Schedule of events in New York City
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