At a firehouse on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the White House had set up a catered buffet of cheese omelets, French toast and bacon in front of a Ford Excursion that belongs to the fire company and has emblazoned on its front door, "In Memory of B.C. Matt Ryan 9-11-01."

It was a day to remember 2,973 people, one person at a time. President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush spent the night in Manhattan after setting red, white and blue wreaths afloat in two boxy little reflecting pools at Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers once stood and now there's mostly construction equipment and a vast crater that provides a fitting, if unintended, temporary memorial.

At navy-blue-covered picnic tables, the Bushes ate breakfast with New York police officers and firefighters, along with police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A photo on the back wall showed the mangled remains of one of the fire company's biggest trucks, Tower Ladder 18, being pulled out of the wreckage after being buried at Ground Zero for nearly a week. It had been near one of the towers when it collapsed, and went into the hole along with it.

For the fifth anniversary of 9/11, a dusty, damaged door from the crew cab, marked with a big "18," was set up outside the firehouse, held in place by a dolly and a pair of dumbbells. The Bushes stood near the door as they bowed their heads to mark moments of silence at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m., when the towers were hit. The President folded his hands prayerfully. He didn't speak. Bush used the event to show reverence, on his way to visiting the impact zone at Shanksville, Pa., and laying a wreath at the Pentagon, followed by a prime time address at 9 pm. Eastern.

Instead, the white-gloved first responders at the Fort Pitt Firehouse put on a brief but sacred tribute. A rabbi who is a Fire Department chaplain spoke of the Torah on the podium, and read from Deuteronomy. A Protestant chaplain from the Port Authority read from Isaiah, and a Catholic chaplain from the NYPD read the Beatitudes, from the Gospel of Matthew. Regina Wilson, a firefighter, sang "Amazing Grace," and a Port Authority officer sang "God Bless America." Then a trio of bagpipers played the same song. The New York Police Department Chorale sang " America the Beautiful" as a septet.

The site was a few miles from Ground Zero but the White House liked it because the block is home to a combined policy precinct and fire station, built in 1973 and combined because of the city's budget crunch at the time. Giant blue tarps hanging between ladder trucks blocked sight lines from the Williamsburg Bridge above and the adjoining neighborhood, which was home to the notorious tenements of the early 1900s.

Among Bush's guests for breakfast was Brian L. Little, a patrol officer from the adjoining Precinct 7, who returned in November from a year in Iraq as an Army staff sergeant. Little, 35, said before the President arrived: "They can take back every medal I've received, just for according me the honor to shake his hand."

A banner outside welcomed back Little, who also served in Desert Storm and Somalia, and had a second son born while he was working an infantryman in Iraq. He volunteered to go to Iraq. "What we fail to do now, our children will have to pay that debt," Little said. He was at Ground Zero the day the towers fell. "A lot of people have forgotten how painful that day actually was," he said. "They're back to worrying about 'American Idol.'

The soft-spoken Little said the President questioned him extensively about his opinion about the war and the morale of the troops. Little said he told the commander-in-chief: "I never met a soldier who wasn't pleased to be there." For a President who doesn't hear much good news, it must have been a comforting message on a disturbing day.