DIEGO IBARGUEN
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Since recovery operations began at the World Trade Center, countless flag-draped stretchers have been solemnly carried out of the rubble, each bearing the remains of someone lost on Sept. 11.
Eight months later, there was one more stretcher to go.
During a ceremony set for Thursday morning, a final stretcher was scheduled to be ferried out of ground zero to symbolize all those victims who were not recovered.
Kathy Willens/AP World Wide Photo
Recovery workers gather around the last remaining steel beam of the World Trade Center before it was cut down, Tuesday, May 28, 2002, at in New York. The beam will be removed from Ground Zero in a separate ceremony Thursday.
Slideshow: The Last Week at Ground Zero and the Final Girder Removal
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The wordless service marking the end of the 8 1/2-month cleanup was to begin at 10:29 a.m. -- the time the second tower collapsed -- in the seven-story pit that once was the basement of the twin skyscrapers before they were felled Sept. 11.
After a ceremonial ringing of the fire department bell, to commemorate the 343 fallen firefighters, the processional was to move up a 500-foot ramp out of the pit.
Of the more than 2,800 people killed in the attack, remains of 1,102 have been identified. Nearly 20,000 body parts have been recovered.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the ceremony had two important goals.
``On one hand, it means that we cannot forget why we're here _ 2,800 people gave their lives for freedom, for our right to go about and practice our religion and say what we want to say, and we just cannot forget them,'' he said Thursday on NBC's ``Today'' show.
``But it also is the point where we have to look to the future and start focusing on building a new world for their relatives that they left behind, and make sure the terrorists know that they can't beat us, that they have not won.''
New York City officials said the sifting for body parts in a city landfill will continue and the identification process will go on for months. Those human remains that cannot be identified will be retained, in case new technology someday makes it possible.
The unprecedented cleanup effort finished several months earlier than originally anticipated and at a fraction of the estimated cost. But while many victims have been identified, the end of the operation leaves numerous others without their family members' remains.
``To not have anything recovered, it's just such an empty feeling,'' said Jennifer Tarantino, 32, of Bayonne, N.J., whose husband died in the attacks. ``It's so final. Your husband goes to work one day and that's it, you never see him again.''
On Thursday, a truck was to follow the stretcher, carrying the trade center's last steel beam. It stood until Tuesday night, when it was cut down during a ceremony for ground zero workers.
The 30-foot column survived when the towers collapsed into a mountain of 1.8 million tons of rubble. For months it was covered by debris, but as the pile shrank the column was revealed, still standing where it was planted when the south tower was built.
The processional was to stop at the edge of the site for a helicopter flyover and the playing of taps, before leaving the 16-acre site via West Street.
Then a human chain was asked to form across the top of the ramp, made up of fire department, New York police and Port Authority police officials, signaling that the recovery had ended.
Several family groups had asked Bloomberg to schedule Thursday's service on a weekend, so that work and school schedules would not be disrupted. The mayor said the city avoided the weekend so it would not conflict with religious observances.
To accommodate those who could not attend the ceremony, the family groups have planned their own service at ground zero on Sunday.
What to do with the site after the ceremony is under discussion. Control of the site will revert from the city to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency charged with rebuilding the World Trade Center site, has received $2 billion in federal funds to decide what to do with the 16 acres at ground zero.
Last week, the Port Authority and the development agency announced the choice of architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle as the urban planning consultant that will assist their staffs in producing a plan.
Beyer Blinder Belle will submit up to six proposals by July 1. Those will be narrowed to three or fewer by Sept. 1 and a final blueprint is to be chosen by Dec. 1.
