Americans are remembering the horror and legacy of 9/11 and gathering Monday at memorials, fire stations, city halls and elsewhere to mark the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on the American soil.

The commemorations extend from the attack sites — to new Yorkthe World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania – has Alaska and beyond. President Joe Biden is expected at a ceremony on a military base in Anchorage.

His visit, en route to Washington, D.C., after a trip to India and Vietnam, is a reminder that the impact of 9/11 was felt in every corner of the country, no matter how remote. The hijacked plane attacks cost nearly 3,000 lives and reshaped U.S. foreign policy and domestic fears.

On that day, “we were one country, one nation, one people, as we should be. It was a feeling of everyone coming together and doing what they could, where we were at, to try to help,” said Goochland County Fire and Rescue Chief Eddie Ferguson. in Virginia.

It is more than 100 miles from the Pentagon and more than three times as far from New York. But a sense of connection is enshrined in a local memorial incorporating steel from the destroyed twin towers of the World Trade Center.

This mostly rural county of 25,000 residents is hosting not one but two anniversary commemorations: a morning service focused on first responders and an evening ceremony honoring all the victims.

Other communities across the country pay tribute with moments of silence, ringing of bells, candlelight vigils and other activities. In Columbus, Indiana, 911 dispatchers broadcast a message of remembrance over police, fire and EMS radios throughout the city of 50,000, which is also holding a public memorial ceremony.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts raise and lower the flag during a commemoration in Fenton, Mo., where a “Heroes Memorial” includes a piece of steel from the World Trade Center and a plaque honoring 9/11 victim Jessica Leigh Sachs. Some of his relatives live in the suburbs of Saint-Louis which has 4,000 inhabitants.

“We’re just a small community,” Mayor Joe Maurath said, “but it’s important for us to continue to remember these events. Not just September 11, but all events that set us free. »

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Monmouth County, New Jersey, which was home to some 9/11 victims, made 9/11 a holiday this year for county employees so they could attend the commemorations.

To mark the anniversary, many Americans are volunteering on what Congress has designated both the National Day of Service and Remembrance.

At ground zero, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to join the ceremony on the plaza of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. The event will not feature remarks from political figures, but will give the floor to relatives of the victims for an hour-long reading of the names of the dead.

James Giaccone has signed up to read again this year in memory of his brother Joseph Giaccone, 43. The family attends the ceremony every year to hear Joseph’s name called.

“If their name is said out loud, they don’t disappear,” James Giaccone said in a recent interview.

The commemoration is crucial for him.

“I hope I never see the day when they downplay this,” he said. “It was a day that changed history.”

Biden, a Democrat, will be the first president to commemorate 9/11 in Alaska, or anywhere in the western United States. He and his predecessors have visited one or other of the attack sites most years, although Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama each celebrated the anniversary on the White House lawn sometimes. Obama followed one of those celebrations by recognizing the military with a visit to Fort Meade in Maryland.

First lady Jill Biden is scheduled to lay a wreath at the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon.

In Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes crashed after passengers tried to storm the cockpit, a commemoration and wreath-laying is planned at the National Flight 93 Memorial in Stoystown, run by the National Park Service. Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is expected to attend the ceremony.

The memorial site will feature a new educational video, virtual tour and other materials for teachers to use in the classroom. Educators, totaling more than 10,000 students, have registered to access the free “National Apprenticeship Day” program, which will be available through the fall, according to organizers.

“We need to get the message to the next generation,” said memorial spokeswoman Katherine Hostetler, a National Park Service ranger.