NEW YORK: Just as Sept 11 was unthinkable , Sunday was inevitable: the 10th anniversary of a day that stands alone. In history. In memory.

Three-thousand sixhundred fifty-two days have now passed. At 8.46am - the time when the first plane slammed into 1 World Trade Center - 87,648 hours will have gone by. Another 5,258,880 minutes. Another 315,532,800 seconds. Once more, the families gathered at ground zero, where 2,749 died, and in Washington and in Pennsylvania to pay tribute to the 224 who died there.

Once more, there was an outpouring of grief.

There were also long moments of silence, first at 8.46am, when American Airlines Flight 11 struck 1 World Trade Center, and again at 9.03 am, when United Airlines Flight 175 smashed into the other tower. Another silence - at ground zero and at the Pentagon - came at 9.37am, when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into what had been considered the unshakable nerve center of the world's most powerful military.

Another moment of silence , at 10.03am, marked the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa - the plane on which passengers to fight back, storming the cockpit and attempting to take control of the plane from the terrorists who had hijacked it. The silver bell at ground zero was rung to remember those passengers, as it had been rung through the morning to remember the passengers on the other hijacked airliners and the people inside the twin towers - office workers, custodians, people having at breakfast in the restaurant a quarter-mile above the street. Once more, the names were recited - solemnly, but with sometimes with poignant , personal reminiscences . One man was thanked for looking down from heaven and helping the Dallas Cowboys . Another relative mentioned "your laughter, your smile and your meatloaf ". And Jefferson Crowther stood at the lectern with a red kerchief in his shift pocket alongside the blue ribbons that all the family members wore.

The ribbon's significance became clear when he got to the last name he read.

"And my courageous son, Welles Remy Crowther," he said, his voice cracking. "The man with the red bandanna." Welles Crowther, a firefighter, had worn a red bandanna on Sept 11 as he tried to help people escape from the WTC. No longer is ground zero a scarred reminder of what was, but a symbol of resurgence , with the National September 11 Memorial about to open and a not-yet-finished skyscraper. It now stands 961 feet above the street where thousands fell. This Sept 11 began with towers that will take their place of the ones that were destroyed a decade ago illuminated in red, white & blue stripes.