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The names of the Sept. 11 dead, some recited by children barely old enough to remember their fallen mothers and fathers, echoed across ground zero Sunday in a haunting but hopeful tribute on the 10th anniversary of the terror attack. “Hope can grow from tragedy,” Vice President Joe Biden said at the Pentagon.

Weeping relatives of the victims streamed into a newly opened memorial at the spot where the World Trade Center stood.

They placed pictures and flowers beside names etched in bronze, and traced them with pencil and paper. President Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, bowed their heads and touched the inscriptions.

Obama, standing behind bulletproof glass and in front of the white oak trees of the memorial, read a Bible passage after a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., when the first jetliner slammed into the north tower 10 years ago.

The president, quoting Psalm 46, invoked the presence of God as an inspiration to endure: “Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.”

The New York ceremony was the centerpiece of a day of remembrance across the country. It was a chance to reflect on a decade that changed American life, including two wars and an overhaul of everyday security at airports and in big cities.

In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Biden paid tribute to “the 9/11 generation of warriors.”

“Never before in our history has America asked so much over such a sustained period of an all-volunteer force,” he said. “So I can say without fear of contradiction or being accused of exaggeration, the 9/11 generation ranks among the greatest our nation has ever produced, and it was born — it was born — it was born right here on 9/11.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta observed a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m., marking the time a jet struck the headquarters of the nation’s military. He paid tribute to 6,200 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq and Afghan wars.

In Shanksville, Pa., a choir sang at the Flight 93 National Memorial, and a crowd of 5,000 listened to a reading of the names of 40 passengers and crew killed aboard the fourth jetliner hijacked that day a decade ago. Obama and his wife traveled to the Pennsylvania town after their visit to New York and placed a wreath at the memorial.