The Pit and The Pile: Ground Zero Is Gone

N E W  Y O R K, May 30 -- With the toll of a fire department bell signaling a fallen firefighter, and the solemn rendition of "Taps," work at Ground Zero formally ended today with a tribute to the more than 2,800 people who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

The end of the recovery effort officially came with the start of today's ceremony at 10:29 a.m., the time the north tower collapsed on Sept. 11.

A fire department bell rang the 5-5-5-5 signal for a fallen firefighter, then a stretcher with a folded flag was carried out of the site by an honor guard made up of representatives of all the services and volunteer groups that have been involved in the recovery effort, as a commemoration of the victims whose remains have not been found.

The procession stopped at the edge of the site for a helicopter flyover and "Taps" was played before the stretcher was carried out of the 16-acre site, watched by fire department, New York police and Port Authority police officials who formed a line across the top of the ramp that has been used to get in and out of the pit.

Of the 2,823 people killed in the attack, the remains of just 1,092 have been identified. But nearly 20,000 body parts have been recovered, and the medical examiner will likely continue the work of trying to identify the remains for at least eight more months.

As Ground Zero workers exited the site, their months of cleanup work was marked with applause. Thousands turned out for the ceremony, which was intended for city officials, Ground Zero workers and victims' families.

Some family groups have scheduled their own event for Sunday at Ground Zero to accommodate those who could not attend today.

Not Thinking About the End

Over the course of eight months of backbreaking, gut-wrenching work, it was a subject that almost never came up.

As recovery workers at Ground Zero focused on finding as many victims as they could among the 1.8 million tons of rubble left when the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed, they hardly ever talked about the day their efforts would come to an end.

"It really didn't start to hit us till a few weeks ago there," said Lt. John Ryan, the Port Authority Police Department commander of the Recovery Task Force. "I guess it never dawned on everyone that what we have been doing for so long was actually going to end. We've been so focused on it that I guess you really didn't see that coming. And when we started talking about it, there was a silence that you probably only find in a funeral home."