Obama visits WTC site, honors victims

New York (CNN) -- Six picture frames hang inside a firehouse in Manhattan, each displaying a photograph of a man who died in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

"We always say never forget," said one firefighter from New York's Engine 23.

He said President Barack Obama's visit to New York was an acknowledgement of "what we're going through."

"This is what New York is going through," said the man, who didn't want to share his name.

After nearly a decade of war prompted by the horrific events of September 11, 2001, Obama traveled to Manhattan Thursday to meet with 9/11 survivors and lay a wreath at ground zero, four days after the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"I wanted to just come up here to thank you," Obama said in prepared remarks, after eating lunch with firefighters and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day almost 10 years ago."

The president visited with members of Fire Engine 54, Battalion Nine, which lost 15 men after al Qaeda hijackers flew two commercial airliners into the World Trade Center's twin towers.

"Obviously we can't bring back your friends that were lost," he said. "I know that each and every one of you not only grieve for them, but have also over the last 10 years dealt with their family."

The men of Engine 54 left behind 28 children, collectively.

The meetings with firefighters were private exchanges during which the president sought to mark an end to the near decade-long hunt for the Qaeda leader, officials say.

"It was a wonderful gesture, based on the news that we got of Osama bin Laden's death," New York Fire Chief Edward Kilduff told reporters.

"For him to come here to see the faces of those killed in 9/11," Kilduff said, referring to photographs that hung inside the firehouse of the men who died, "I think it really meant something to him."

In a pre-dawn raid in Pakistan Monday, a U.S. Navy SEAL team killed bin Laden, the shadowy figurehead atop the group behind attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, which left nearly 3,000 people dead.

"So it's some comfort, I hope, to all of you to know that when those guys took those extraordinary risks going into Pakistan, that they were doing it in part because of the sacrifices that were made in the States," said the president.

"They were doing it in the name of your brothers that were lost."

Obama's visit to ground zero -- the former site of the World Trade Center -- sought to "help New Yorkers and Americans everywhere achieve a sense of closure with the death of Osama bin Laden," according to White House press secretary Jay Carney.

The president's visit included a moment of silence and a wreath-laying ceremony at the foot of the Survivor Tree, singed during the September 11 attacks and replanted after it was discovered beneath piles of smoldering rubble.

He was accompanied by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Port Authority Chairman David Samson.

In a seperate moment, Obama then hugged Payton Wall, a 14-year-old girl who wrote the president a letter explaining how she was handling the loss of her father, Glen James, who was killed in the attacks.

Meanwhile, camera-wielding tourists and news crews snapped images of the president's motorcade as it rumbled through Manhattan and later of Obama's meeting with the friends and family members of those killed during the attacks.

Onlookers posed for photographs with firefighters in what appeared to be a day of mixed emotions -- satisfaction at bin Laden's death, but renewed grief for what was lost that day.

Across the city, New Yorkers and visitors hearkened back to where they were on that fateful Tuesday. Others more quietly remembered friends and family who died.

"My husband's here in spirit," said Monica Iken, whose husband, Michael Patrick, was a bond trader who worked in the World Trade Center. "We'll never forget what happened here."

"I'm proud today," she said.

Former President George W. Bush, who was in office at the time of the 9/11 attacks, did not appear alongside his successor during Thursday's visit to New York.

A spokesman for Bush said he turned down an invitation to attend, citing his desire to remain out of the public spotlight. The image of the former president beside firefighters at ground zero once became an emblem of America's resolve in the war on terror.

Meanwhile, Obama's visit to the hallowed site nearly 10 years later left many New Yorkers eager to witness the closing chapter for a man once considered the world's most wanted terrorist.

CNN

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