Victims' families kneel at WTC site

NEW YORK -- Brokenhearted mothers knelt with weeping widows on the World Trade Center bedrock Thursday, resting their shaking hands on earth that may disappear under construction by the next anniversary.\nClutching flowers and photos, thousands of victims' relatives walked down a concrete ramp onto the rocky soil where the north tower once stood.\nOrganizers of the ceremony had envisioned an assembly line system in which families would descend, lay a flower and then come back up from seven-story pit.\nBut the family members wouldn't leave.\nMany bent to touch the earth, rolling the dust in their palms. Some slipped rocks into their pockets or scooped dust into empty water bottles.\n"This is where my husband is," said Kathy Trant, just before she bowed to place a flower in the footprint of the north tower, where Daniel Trant worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. "He's in here, somewhere. That's what I have left of him."\nThe 40-year-old father of three is among more than 1,260 victims whose remains have not been identified. The families of the unidentified are particularly drawn to the bedrock area, where nearly 20,000 pieces of human remains were recovered.\nAccess to the trade center site is normally restricted because it is an active construction zone; crews are building a replacement commuter rail station that will open in November. Work on the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower is expected to be under way by next year's anniversary, and the memorial to the victims may be taking shape as well.\nA coalition of families has campaigned to preserve the naked earth from development, going so far as to stage a rally last week where they tried to block a gate into the site.\nThe memorial may be built on the footprints, three stories above the bedrock. Families do not object to that.\nBut they are concerned that redevelopment plans could allow infrastructure to encroach on the footprints at bedrock level, and families who visited the area during the first anniversary ceremony said this year they were unnerved to see the commuter rail station.\nAs children read aloud the names of the victims Thursday, family members stooped to stroke the ground, aware it might be their last chance. Some wrote messages in the dust, and spelled out nicknames with rocks -- "Ari," "Nico," "Love." A few people squatted so long their legs gave in, so they sat in the dirt.\n"This is the only place I can come to touch him anymore," said Marilyn Siracuse, in tears. She had just been told she was standing in the footprint of the north tower, where her son worked. Peter Siracuse's remains have not been found.\nDonna Terracciano, who lost her brother-in-law, chose a small, white rock to put in a time capsule she is saving for her young son. She said rebuilding on the footprints would be devastating.\n"Anytime we come here it will always be ground zero to us anyway, but then we can't come down and touch it," Terracciano said. "They're going to build on it and there's nothing for us to touch"