By: Calvin Woodward
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - All those who cared fell silent.
Gum-chewing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Schoolchildren toting lunch boxes in New York.
Yellow-jacketed mercantile traders in Chicago.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
Untold millions everywhere.
Moments of maximum terrible noise one year ago
became heavily quiet Wednesday.
New York, of course, led the first moment of silence,
at 8:46 a.m., EDT, the time of impact of the first plane
that crashed into the World Trade Center.
New Yorkers were not alone. At the Pentagon, where
thousands gathered to remember those killed when the
third hijacked jetliner crashed into the building, everyone
paused in reflection over New York's pain and loss.
They were marking their own moment at 9:37 a.m.
A commercial jet streaked through the sky at about
8:46 a.m., taking off from nearby Reagan National Airport.
"It's good to be here among friends," said Christine Patterson,
wiping a tear at that moment. Her sister Ada M. Davis died
in the Pentagon attack.
Several relatives of Davis came, wearing white T-shirts that read:
"She still whispers."
The silence in New York ended with Mayor Michael Bloomberg
introducing New York Gov. George Pataki, who began reading
the Gettysburg Address.
Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor, began a reading of the
names of those who died in the collapse of the towers.
Washington's National Cathedral marked the occasion, too.
Solicitor General Ted Olson, whose wife Barbara died on the
plane that crashed into the Pentagon, sat with
Attorney General John Ashcroft under the soaring arches.
Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was speaking in the
cathedral when 8:46 a.m. arrived and a bell tolled, bringing
on the silence.
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