Victims, not politicians, will be the focus of this year’s 9/11 memorials

New York City will bow its head in grief Tuesday morning for the city’s official September 11 Commemoration Ceremony at the Ground Zero plaza in Lower Manhattan.

The ceremony, which will be broadcast uninterrupted on all local television channels, will have one marked difference from previous years: Instead of a retinue of politicians offering speeches and readings, Tuesday’s ceremony will focus exclusively on those personally affected by the 2001 attacks.

Two hundred family members of 9/11 victims will read aloud in pairs the names of all 2,983 victims of the attacks on New York City, the Pentagon and United Flight 93 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field as passengers attempted to retake the plane from the hijackers.

The ceremony will begin with a traditional bagpipe processional by players from New York’s fire and police departments, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s police department — all departments which lost officers when the Twin Towers collapsed.

The reading of the names will be interrupted periodically with moments of silence marking the exact time 11 years ago at which each plane crashed and each tower fell: at 8:46 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower; 9:03 a.m., when United Airlines Flight 175 was flown into the South Tower; 9:37 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon; 9:59 a.m., when the South Tower collapsed; 10:03 a.m., when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania; and 10:28 a.m., when the North Tower collapsed.

The ceremony is expected to last a little over three hours.

On Tuesday evening, at sunset, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum will light the “Tribute in Light,” two intense beams of light pointing skyward just three blocks away from where the Twin Towers stood. The lights will shine through the night and fade away at dawn on September 12. No formal commemoration program is planned for the lights.

New York remains a target for terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda, and the NYPD is not taking chances with the symbolic anniversary. The area had already been cordoned off Monday, and the police presence is expected to be massive before and during the ceremony.

Meanwhile, 11 years after the attacks, many family members are frustrated at the delays in establishing commemoration institutions.

New York’s 9/11 Memorial Museum unveiled on Monday personal items, faces and recorded voices belonging to the victims. Personal items donated by families include a wedding ring and a loved one’s watch that stopped on the date 9/11. It was found in the rubble.

But the unveiling does not signal the impending opening of the museum itself, which remains shuttered over disagreement between the Port Authority, which owns the site, and the National 9/11 Museum and Memorial Foundation, raising money for the museum, over control of the institution and how operating costs will be funded.

The dispute pits New York and New Jersey governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie, who head the Port Authority, against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, chair of the board of the Foundation. The local press has reported that the two sides have been at an impasse — with construction of the museum frozen — for over a year.

Frank Fetchet, who lost his son on 9/11, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal on Monday as begging officials not to “hold the museum hostage.”

Meanwhile, the National Park Foundation, the official charity of the federal government’s National Park Service, reported Monday that $5 million are still missing in order to complete the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“Five million dollars remain to be raised to protect this sacred ground and final resting place of those aboard Flight 93,” said Neil Mulholland, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “This last wave of support will ensure that these true American heroes will never be forgotten, and that future generations will have a place to reflect and learn from their brave and selfless actions.”

A ceremony will be held on the Flight 93 National Memorial grounds in Pennsylvania beginning at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday.

AP contributed to this report.