Bin Laden news draws crowds to Ground Zero

They came Monday where the Twin Towers once cast their shadows, some bearing tokens of lost loved ones, others burdened with excruciating memories and still more basking in the collective joy of a national victory.

Nearly 10 years after 2,752 people died there, Ground Zero again became a pilgrimage site, a fulcrum for conflicting emotions after the death of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Families of the fallen, surviving emergency responders and countless others said they felt compelled to pay their respects.

"Coming here, this is my closure," said Al Montano, 52, of Manhattan, a contractor who said he worked in the rubble for four months after the attacks. "I haven't been here since 2002. I couldn't."

Tears welled in his eyes and his voice cracked as he described his ailments since working on the pile -- lung cancer, mesothelioma and post-traumatic stress disorder. "The memories here, they haunt me. But I'll sleep better tonight having come," he said.

The elation many felt at bin Laden's demise was tempered by a somber undercurrent. By midmorning Monday, there were few remnants of the celebration the night before when the news first spread.

Delirious revelers were replaced by rushed commuters, picture-snapping tourists, hordes of media and solemn mourners, jostling for space in the crammed lower Manhattan streets.

Tara Henwood Butzbaugh, 42, of Manhattan, carried an American flag and a photo of her brother, John Christopher Henry, 35, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee killed on 9/11.

"It's bittersweet," she said of bin Laden's death. "For the world, this is a victory. For families, this is very personal."

There was also an uneasy sense that another terror strike loomed in the future.

"This isn't over," said Elijah Stevens, 56, a U.S. Army captain from Newburgh. Dressed in uniform, he came to Ground Zero Monday with his wife, Stephanie, to show their two children where the war began. "When we saw it on television last night, I thought, 'It's about time. Now, on to the next [terrorist leader]."

Makeshift memorials and tributes popped up on the streets. Someone tied a pair of pink flowers to the bars of St. Paul's Chapel cemetery, with a note: "Thank you U.S. Military! Holly & Henry." Stickers reading "WIN" were plastered over street signs at Church and Vesey streets.

Newspaper front pages featuring bin Laden were hung along the northern wall of the Ground Zero construction site. Tourists smiled for pictures in front of them, their thumbs up.

"It is a place that acts like a magnet for our nation," said Alice Greenwald, director of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum. "People feel this need to be here, this need to be part of 9/11."

Even downtown commuters took time from their hurried workday to reflect.

Bennie Rodriguez, 40, of Huntington, a construction inspector for the 9/11 memorial site, has witnessed gatherings at the site in the past four years, but never the spontaneous outpouring that converged Monday.

"Maybe now people can start recovering," he said. "But I can't really believe it. I couldn't sleep last night. I'm not sure what it means."