BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: The enduring symbol of [the 9/11] terrorist attacks is Ground Zero in New York. Thousands of people every week are still visiting the site where the World Trade Center once stood. But five years since 9/11, Lucky Severson says, there's still so much traffic and construction and so much controversy about how to rebuild that it's hard to feel Ground Zero as sacred space.

LUCKY SEVERSON: There's a constant flow of tour buses -- people trying to comprehend. Some come to pay respect, to share grief. But for many this is just another spot on the tour map, something that happened five years ago. Time, for some, has dimmed the magnitude of what was lost here, and it seems that the building owners, the city and state cannot agree on what would honor this sacred space.

While the sides bicker over a permanent memorial site, people from all over the world come to this spot that offers little more than an overview of construction activity. It is not an easy place to make a connection to what happened here. The construction site is noisy. Commuters on their way to the underground train station bustle through the overview plaza, where about all that can be seen are pictures of before, during, and after.

Maxine Laboy escaped from the 17th floor of Tower Two. She survived but suffered a nervous breakdown. Now she volunteers as a tour guide who hopes to help volunteers feel the significance of this place.

MAXINE LABOY (Tour Guide): There really is nothing down here. That's why we do these tours, because we realize there are so many people that come down here, and a good majority of them are looking for something to connect to, and there really isn't anything.

SEVERSON: There is the powerful image of a cross standing among the debris, but it's been set off to the side, and many people miss it.

Ms. LABOY: I do think there are people who come just because it's like the thing to see, and they treat it a little bit like the Statue of Liberty or Disney World, and they stand out front and take pictures and say, "Look, I was here." But the people who come on the tours, however, in my experience, have all been people trying to connect with it and understand it a little bit more on a personal level. So for those people it's more of a pilgrimage.

SEVERSON: For thousands of visitors, the place that symbolizes the courage and kinship that put New York back together is St. Paul's (Episcopal) Chapel. Once it was in the shadow of the towers, and then for months a 24-hour a day command center and sanctuary for firemen, rescue and construction workers.

REV. STUART HOKE (St. Paul's Chapel): It appears that our higher power had a place, had a mission for this institution.

SEVERSON: Over 1700 days later, the chapel continues to comfort many hundreds each day. The Reverend Stuart Hoke, pastor of St. Paul's, watched the second plane crash into Tower Two and then helped rescue kids from a day care center.

Rev. HOKE: There is no shrine, there is no memorial at Ground Zero. The city has not provided that or the state. This, ipso facto, has become the holy place. Many come as pilgrims. I mean they are intentional about visiting a holy place, which is what a pilgrim is. They come, first of all, and you can see them sit down in the pews and then they weep and they pay their respects to the blessed dead, and they mourn their losses, whatever those losses are.

SEVERSON: Reverend Hoke notes proudly that St. Paul's has possibly become the most visited church in the United States.

Rev. HOKE: We thought that within the first year the wave of curiosity seekers and pilgrims, whatever they are, would have completely fallen off. We were astounded after the first year the numbers -- they increased the second year. This year has been the highest number ever. We now have 35 to 40,000 people a week. We've had 3 million -- over 3 million people in this building since the first anniversary of 9/11.

SEVERSON: For first timers, Ground Zero is often a jarring experience.