NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush visited "Ground Zero" at the World Trade Center, a re-energized Veteran's Day parade marched down Madison Ave in New York City, firefighters embarked on a "Thank You America" tour and the families of police and firefighters were treated to a free cruise on Sunday.
Two months to the day of the terrorist attacks, President Bush returned to the still-smoldering wreckage of the World Trade Center in New York City where he attended a ceremony.
Actor Ron Silver read the victim's home countries names and an honor guard carried each country's flag. On a wall listing the countries' names, beneath the United States, Bush wrote, "Good will triumph over evil. May God bless all of us. George W. Bush."
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg laid a wreath for veterans at Madison Square Park, and the two joined veterans in the 18-block parade down Madison Ave. in what organizers described as a "re-engerized" Veteran's Day parade. Until Sept. 11, the 75-year parade was not always well supported, according to organizers.
In a nosier display of support, about 800 bikers from Washington, including Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., who claims to be the only member of Congress who's a biker, roared up Broadway in Manhattan to show solidarity with the city.
The bikers had asked what they could do to help New York City and police and firefighters said "come to New York and spend money." After the seven-hour trip, they laid a wreath of red roses at Saint John's Church, and then the bikers, many spending the Veteran's Day weekend, planned to spend some money.
Meanwhile, the New York Transit Police, which patrol the subway system, will have its own units respond to the numerous anthrax scares that have caused delays for up to an hour for passengers.
The transit police said the new units, certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, would shorten delays because they will be able to respond more quickly. Up to now, about nine reports of suspicious substances on subway trains and stations have been responded to a day by special units of the city police and fire department hazardous materials teams.
Mack Trucks Inc., a 101-year-old company begun in Brooklyn and now owned by Volvo of Sweden, which supplies sanitation trucks to New York City, wanted to help the city. At Mack's assembly plant in Macungie, Pa., 3,000 United Auto Workers came in two hours early to work to donate their time to build seven Mack trucks for the New York City police and fire departments.
A group of firefighters from the East Village's Engine Co. Nine/Ladder Co. 33, which lost ten colleagues in the World Trade Center, embarked on a cross-country bicycle "Thank You America" tour. The firefighters plan to thank Americans for their support.
Eight from the Manhattan firehouse will bicycle to Washington and from there four more will continue the 2,757-mile trip to California. The firefighters are not raising money. They said they only want to thank as many people personally as they can. They will be using their vacation time and paying for the trip themselves, which they said they hope will be a healing experience.
Each day New York City newspapers list the funerals and memorial services for those killed in the fire and police departments at the World Trade Center. This coming week there will be 26 services. In normal times, thousands of firefighters and police officers turn out for every colleague's funeral.
But the sheer number of services and the continuing recovery effort at the site have had made that impossible so the city has asked members of the public to attend. This weekend, thousands including police and firefighters from all over the Northeast, attended the funeral services of two firefighters and police officers.
About 2,800 families of uniformed city workers who perished in the World Trade Center or who have worked there since and haven't seen their families very much were treated to a free two-day cruise, on the Royal Caribbean ship Adventure of the Seas.
Giuliani, the firefighters, police and Port Authority officers christened the new ship -- the first passenger liner to enter New York Harbor since Sept. 11. The mayor called the gleaming ship a hopeful sign for New York City and New York Harbor. Giuliani said he wished to stow away on board because he could use some rest.
The Orthodox Jewish ritual known as shmira, the tent where remains from the World Trade Center are brought has done where a voice sings from the Book of Psalms to comfort the dead, done every day, every hour, day and night since the attacks. Normally, the shmira lasts for 24 hours and is performed by a male Jew, but because of the scope of the disaster, those singing have to take shifts.
Women from nearby Stern College for Women, part of Yeshiva University, volunteered to fill the difficult to fill shifts from Friday afternoon to Saturday night, when Orthodox Jews cannot take public transportation or travel in cars on the Sabbath. Under the circumstances, Yeshiva President Norman Lamm said that the normal gender rules that allow women to sit shmira only for other women could be waived. The police officers that guard the tent and those working there have said the singing has been a comfort.
According to city officials:
-- 3,748 are declared missing by the police
-- 599 are confirmed dead
(Alex Cukan in Albany, N.Y. contributed to the report)
