Two New York City fire boats shoot red, white and blue water from cannons Saturday on the Hudson River off Manhattan’s west side before the start of the 33rd annual Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks display as seen from Weehawken, N.J. This year the fireworks were moved from the East River to the Hudson River in honor of the 400th anniversary of the river’s discovery by Henry Hudson

New York ? Fireworks lit the night sky above New York with a kaleidoscope of colors shooting 1,000 feet into the air on an Independence Day that began with the Statue of Liberty’s crown opening to the public for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001.

It was the nation’s biggest fireworks display, with more than 22 tons of pyrotechnics exploding Saturday over a mile-and-a-half of the Hudson River, a new vantage point for New York’s festivities. Millions of spectators watched from both sides of the river.

While the recession forced many communities to scale down, or even cancel, their fireworks, “we’re a country of survivors and fighters, and we try to make things work,” said Gary Souza, whose family-owned, California-based company is staging the New York display as well as hundreds of others across the country — including the nation’s capital.

In Washington, the celebrations started with a parade along Constitution Avenue and ended with fireworks over the Washington Monument as a band played a medley of patriotic music.

President Obama spoke to military families at the White House for Independence Day festivities. Vice President Joe Biden spent the Fourth of July in Iraq, presiding over a naturalization ceremony for 237 U.S. troops from 59 countries. He had lunch with the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade from Delaware, to which his son, Beau, belongs.

In Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the city had a parade through the Old City neighborhood for the first time in 18 years. Descendants of the Declaration’s signers gathered at the Liberty Bell.

On Saturday morning in Boston, the Navy’s oldest commissioned warship performed its annual turnaround in the harbor. The USS Constitution — “Old Ironsides” — marked the day by firing a 21-gun salute, the highest maritime honor, followed by 19 volleys.

On Saturday evening, Bostonians filled the banks of the Charles River for a free Boston Pops concert featuring Neil Diamond.

In New York, Manhattan’s six-lane West Side Highway was closed to traffic so pedestrians could view the fireworks. The celebration returned to Manhattan’s West Side for the first time since the 9/11 attacks. The extravaganza was expanded this year with more than 44,000 shells.

The festivities turned somber in North Carolina, where authorities said a truckload of fireworks exploded on Ocracoke Island off the coast, killing two workers and critically injuring three. And in central Florida, officials say one person was killed in a lightning strike at a Fourth of July gathering in Lakeland and at least 18 others were taken to hospitals.