(CNN) — Two years after the September 11 attacks, people are gathering across the United States and around the world for ceremonies honoring the 3,016 people killed when four hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

At Ground Zero in New York, thousands of people, many of them clutching pictures of their loved ones, held a moment of silence at 8:46 EDT, when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Afterward, children began reading the names of the 2,792 victims of the World Trade Center attacks in alphabetical order. Each child had a relative who died in the attack.

“I love you daddy, I miss you a lot,” said Christina Maria Aceto after reading the name of her father, Richard Anthony Aceto.

Mourners paused again at 9:03 to mark the time when United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower.

During the ceremony, family members walked down a ramp to the lowest level of the site to pray and reflect. Two square pools of water that resembled the footprint of the two buildings quickly filled with flowers. The route was lined by dozens of posters made by children of the victims. One said, “I remember riding on my daddy’s shoulders.”

Overnight, hundreds of people marched by candlelight from Manhattan’s Union Square to Ground Zero.

In Washington, President Bush and first lady Laura Bush, along with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, emerged onto the White House lawn for a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m.

Earlier, Bush told reporters: “We remember lives lost. We remember heroic deeds. We remember the compassion, the decency of our fellow citizens on that terrible day.”

New York Gov. George Pataki, looking at the thousands gathered at Ground Zero, said the “sense of loss is like it happened yesterday.”

“I don’t think that sense of sorrow will diminish, but at the same time, you can’t help but feel pride. You look down and see the firefighters, you hear the bagpipes. You see the people, and you have a tremendous sense of pride that the heroism and courage that New Yorkers showed on September 11th.”

At the State Department, Secretary of State Colin Powell read a proclamation from Bush in which the president vowed the United States “will continue to bring our enemies to justice or justice to them.”

Services are also planned at the Pentagon for the 125 people killed in the attacks and the 59 passengers and crew members of American Airlines Flight 77 — a total of 184 people who died in the Washington attacks. A stained glass window that Pentagon workers helped assemble will be dedicated.

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, ceremonies were held with memorial speeches and songs overnight in the Flight 93 chapel. A memorial is set for today as well — bells will toll for the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, who are credited with preventing another attack by causing the plane to crash into a field.

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