To this day, just 59% of the victims have been identified, mostly through DNA. No trace has been found of the remaining 41 percent, or 1,115 people, according to the medical examiner's office.
Over the years, authorities have recovered 21,906 human remains of which 63 percent have been identified.
The 9/11 attack killed 2,753 people in New York, including 403 police and firefighters.
At the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed at 9:37 a.m. on September 11, President Obama will speak at a private observance for family members of the 184 people who died there.
In southwestern Pennsylvania, it is only expected to take 18 minutes to lay a wreath and read the names of 40 people, beginning at 9:45 a.m. and ending at 10:03 a.m. That is the time United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville.
A bomb sniffing dog named Sirius also died at the WTC.
In 2007, the New York City medical examiner's office began to add people to the official death toll who died of illnesses caused by exposure to dust from the site. The first such victim was a woman who had died in February 2002 from a lung condition. In 2009, a man who died in 2008 was added, and in 2011 a man who died in 2010.
Many more people have died since as a result of exposure to 9/11 dust at Ground Zero.
Recordings of 9-1-1 calls show how New York City's emergency operators and dispatchers did their jobs on 9/11.
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/how-it-was-voices-of-911
The Survivor Tree is a callery pear tree. It was recovered from the rubble at the World Trade Center site in October 2001, long after recovery workers expected to find anything alive at the site. At the time of its recovery it was 8 feet tall, badly burned, and it had only one living branch. Prior to the attacks, the tree had lived at the World Trade Center site for several decades. It was originally planted in the 1970s in the area near buildings four and five, close to Church Street.
The tree has been looked after by several different people over the years.
In December 2010, the Survivor Tree, now grown to a height of 30 feet, was returned to the World Trade Center site.
The tree is a symbol of hope and rebirth.
Arlene Eva Fried was 49 years old and from Roslyn, New York. Arlene worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
On September 11, 2001, Arlene was trying to help a young lawyer who wanted to know where he should apply for a job. She returned the lawyer's telephone message at 8:44 a.m. He was not there, so she left a message. Four minutes later, the first plane struck. Her remains were never recovered.
"It was always such a joy to work with you, Arlene! Your smile that always greeted me as I peeked into your office was refreshing. I was always bringing a really difficult problem to you. That smile made things much easier for me. I miss you and am so sad that you are no longer with us". (Charles K. Gonzales, co-worker).
Carol Keyes Demitz was 49 years old and from New York, New York. (Born: Portsmouth, Virginia).
Carol was senior vice president, chief corporate counsel and secretary of Fiduciary Trust International Company in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
When Carol got home from Fiduciary Trust, she did not reach for a martini. She went directly to play with Annie, her 4 year-old. "I could tell what room the girls were in by the squealing and laughter," said Fred Brewer, her husband. "Carol would be playing hide-and-seek. Carol was thin and could squeeze herself into the most amazing little cubbyholes. You could hear Annie squealing when she found her."
Margaret Ruth Echtermann was 33 years old and from Barneveld, New York. (Born: Flemington, New Jersey). Margaret worked as a leasing representative for Regus on the 93rd floor in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Margaret liked to spend summer weekends in a rented house in the Hamptons where according to her sister Heidi, she had fallen in love. Also, she was looking forward to moving to Boston where her company was about to transfer her.
On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Margaret spoke to her sister after the first plane hit the North Tower and told her she was fine, then called her parents in Barneveld, a small town north of Utica, and told them the same. Then she called a friend, who recognized Margaret's phone number on her caller ID, but heard nothing. That was the moment of impact, her sister thinks.
James Patrick Ladley was 41 years old and from Colts Neck, New Jersey. (Born: Staten Island, New York). James worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
On September 11, 2001, James was talking to his wife on the phone from his office on the 104th floor when terrorists flew a hijacked airplane into the building.
Shortly after that tragic day, James's wife had to try to explain to their two young children, Elizabeth and James, why their father had not come home. She told Elizabeth, who saw the big building burning, and relates big buildings with her father's work, that "the building became too dangerous and that God is a good person and he opened up heaven and welcomed the people in the building to a safe place." James says that "Daddy is working in heaven." They look at pictures and videos when they miss their dad, but Mrs. Ladley, who wants them to remember their loving and fun-loving father, also tries to assure them that "we big people will take care of everything."
Catherine Patricia Salter was 49 years old and from New York, NY. Catherine worked as an assistant vice president in the property claims department at Aon Corp on the 102 floor in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
On September 11, 2001, Cathy was near her office in the South Tower, when the first plane hit the other tower. Being a VP and in charge of the office, she had evacuated the staff and then called Chicago to tell them that everyone was OK. Next she called her former boss in Cincinnati to tell him all was OK, and he was shocked that she was not out of the building. Catherine explained that the public address system urged people to remain in their offices, but she had evacuated the staff and was just ready to leave herself. It was then that the phone went dead and Catherine's boss saw the new plume of fire from Catherine's tower.
"I can almost imagine seeing her walk the streets and enjoy being alive there. My entire family life has been changed by that day. I may be past the bitterness of strangers taking her life but I will never be over knowing that they must be stopped. We must never forget 9-11-01 if for no other reason than to make sure that it never happens again.
I miss Cathy so much, I look at her picture and I talk to her and I believe that she knows how I feel.
May the circle be unbroken." Love MOM (Eleanor Salter)
Catherine Lisa Loguidice was 30 years old and from Brooklyn, New York. Catherine worked as an assistant to bond traders at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Catherine also worked every weekend at a veterinarian's office on Oceanside and had begun taking classes to become a veterinary technician.
Catherine was to be married on October 30, 2001.
Catherine's purse and wallet were found intact, as were some of her remains.
Danielle Kousoulis was 29 years old and from New York, NY. (Born: Woodbury, New Jersey). Danielle worked on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower as a vice president for Cantor Fitzgerald.
On September 11, 2001, Danielle was at her office at 8:46 a.m. when the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the tower.
Danielle's boyfriend, Chris Mills, spoke to her on his mobile phone from outside the centre after the aircraft had trapped her. "I could hear people running around in the background - there was pandemonium. I said: 'Get out, just get out of there', but I lost contact. Then I saw the South Tower fall down and I had to run for my life."
Danielle was still there, trapped, at 10:15 a.m. when she called her boyfriend back. Fifteen minutes later, her building collapsed.
"Nothing of Danielle was ever found, so I feel that Ground Zero is Danielle's final resting place, and it is important to me." (Eleni, Danielle's sister).
Sharon Christina Millan was 31 years old and from New York, N.Y. Sharon worked for Harris Beach LLP as an office coodindator on the 85th floor in the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Two of the passenger jets brought down the Twin Towers of New York City's World Trade Center, another hit the Pentagon outside Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers aboard that flight fought back against the hijackers.
At Ground Zero in New York where the towers once stood, the annual reading of the list of 2,983 people killed at the three sites begis at 8:39 a.m.
It takes more than 190 people three hours to read the list alphabetically.
Moments of silence are observed at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:37 a.m. and 10:03 a.m., the times of impact for the four planes, and again at 9:59 a.m. and 10:28 a.m., the times that the South Tower and then the North Tower fell.
Let us Never Forget them.
The National September 11 Memorial, built directly over the Twin Towers site, invokes a feeling of peace and serenity amidst the everyday chaos of New York with 400 white oaks and two illuminated reflecting pools.
The memorial officially opened to the public on September 12, 2011, and the museum opens on September 11, 2012.
The names of 2,983 victims are inscribed on 76 bronze plates attached to the parapet walls which form the edges of the memorial pools.
As a seasoned housekeeper, Lucy took immense pride in polishing the brass and vacuuming the much-trod carpets of Windows on the World. She
always insisted that her rooms be as perfect as the view. And although
she was scheduled to come to work at 9am on September 11, 2001, she went in
early as usual. In fact she should not have gone in at all, she had insisted on working
the week before despite a bout of the flu, and the previous Thursday
her boss had demanded she go home, telling her, "Don't come back until
you're ready."
But, Lucy liked to be out there working, she never liked to sit around at home.
And so, on the morning of the terrorist attacks, she took the A train
from Fulton Street as she always did, and arrived well before the first
plane struck the building.
Her son recalled how hard she had worked all her life, after coming to the US in 1986 from Barbados. Her family still cannot quite believe she is gone.
