Ground Zero is gone — replaced with an inspiring memorial that finally gives the families of the fallen a fitting place to honor their dead.
Many wept, others fell to their knees and prayed.
Nearly everyone was overcome with emotion on first seeing the names of their friends and family members carved into bronze plaques at the National September 11 Memorial.
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“This is beautiful,” said Cathie Ong, who lost her sister Betty Ann, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
She came with her sister, Gloria — they had not been to the site since 2007.
Back then, it was “very angry,’’ Cathy said. “Not so now,’’ she added. “It’s very soothing.’’
They touched their sister’s name on the memorial plaque, felt the grooves and took pictures of each other.
They were there when Betty’s name was called.
The names on the plaques include the 2,977 people who where killed on 9/11 and the six who died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Many mourners were inspired to trace the names of their loved ones as poignant keepsakes.
So many people started making rubbings that memorial staffers rushed out and bought boxes and boxes of crayons, which they distributed to visitors with paper.
“I had to be here to see where she’ll be remembered forever,” said Alicia Watkins, using a purple crayon to trace her close friend Tamara Thurman’s name.
Thurman, a US Army officer, was killed at the Pentagon.
Dennis Baxter, 64, was overcome with emotion upon seeing his brother Jasper’s name.
“I touched it . . . I didn’t know what to do,” said the resident of King of Prussia, Pa.
Ultimately, he found solace.
“It was really moving,” he said.
More than a dozen family members and friends of Manika Narula of Kings Park, LI, wore shirts bearing her name and picture.
The 22-year-old had been a clerk at Cantor Fitzgerald.
No remains have been found.
Her friend Shailja Gulati, of Manhattan, said the family was impressed by the memorial.
“But it’s a memorial,’’ Gulati said. “We didn’t want her to be part of his tory in a memorial.’’
The family has been coming to Ground Zero every year, because they have no grave to visit.
They were impressed by the work on the site.
“So much progress was made in the last year,’’ Gulati said, pointing to the new 1 WTC.
Those who came also left behind reminders of lives lost, gentle portraits of the victims’ passions.
Many were remembered with snapshots, American flags and an array of flowers, with pink, white and red roses the most popular.
A late Pittsburgh Steeler fan got a hat with the team’s logo placed by his name.
Many of the mourners wedged notes into the carvings of the names.
The memorial — complete with reflecting pools, the only tree that survived the attacks and subtle architectural elements from the Twin Towers — opens to the public today.
Yesterday was for families and close friends only.
“It’s beautiful, but I want my dad here,” said Amanda Gregory, 29, upon seeing her father’s name on a plaque for the first time.
She is grateful that she told her father, Cantor Fitzgerald employee Donald Gregory, that she loved him when they last spoke.
My dad was very loving, but we never really said, ‘I love you,’ ” said Gregory, who came to the site with her sister Sara and brother James.
“I remember sitting there afterwards. I just said, ‘I’m so glad I said that.’ ”
José Morales struggled to articulate his grief as he placed a cardboard shrine of the Twin Towers in front of his brother’s name.
“Very hard to describe,” he said.
Sam Pulia came to honor his cousin Thomas Cascoria, an FDNY firefighter who died in the collapse of Tower 1.
Pulia, then a deputy police chief of a Chicago suburb, rushed to New York City after the towers fell and worked on the pile for a week.
Yesterday, he was carrying a huge steel replica of an FDNY shield in tribute to his cousin.
The names were arranged in such a way that people who knew each other in life were near one another in the memorial, if the families requested it.
So many requests came in that the memorial’s creators had to use a computer algorithm to figure out the order.
“Respect was foremost in the making of these plaques,” said Jim Moretti, whose family-run Service Metal Fabricating factory in New Jersey crafted the plaques.
Additional reporting by Cynthia R. Fagen