With World Trade site largely rebuilt, New York marks September 11

People walk near the 9/11 memorial in Exchange Place, New Jersey September 10, 2014. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Until a few months ago, the part of New York City where crowds will gather on Thursday morning to mark the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States had been mostly fenced off to the public.

This year, for perhaps the first time since the attacks, a sense of normalcy and openness has taken root in the city blocks where two airliners hijacked by militants from al Qaeda crashed into the World Trade Center's twin towers.