Obama marks 9/11 with mourning and hope

President Barack Obama honored the nearly 3,000 people who died during the 9/11 terrorist attacks by visiting three important sites on Sunday, the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

Obama visited New York's Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center towers once stood, and touched the names of the dead at a memorial pool, reports the Associated Press.

He visited the North Memorial Pool with his wife, Michelle, and former President George Bush and Laura Bush.

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During a ceremony at Ground Zero, Obama read Psalm 46.

"God is our refuge and strength," Obama read, "a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear."

He then went to a field in rural Pennsylvania where 40 people died after a hijacked plane crashed at Shanksville. Obama and his wife posed for photographs with visitors, and the crowd chanted, "USA," AP reports. Obama walked the marbled Wall of Names and left a wreath honoring the dead.

A memorial is being built in the field to honor those who died on United 93, states Reuters.

Later, the president placed a wreath at a memorial at the Pentagon in Washington, DC, in honor of the 184 people who died there.

Obama is also expected to give remarks at a memorial concert, the Concert for Hope, at the Kennedy Center on Sunday evening, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Throughout the day, Obama did not focus on his administration's killing of September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden or the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he focused on remembering the victims of the attacks and looking ahead to the future with a sense of hope and resilience.

The ceremony at ground zero was the first time Obama and Bush have appeared together since January 2010, Reuters reports.

"But, joined by their wives, the two men made a show of solidarity at Ground Zero in New York," it states.

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