No one knew that those towers were capable of falling. The NYPD helicopters were reporting that they felt like the steel columns were buckling, but like how most believed that the Titanic was unsinkable, the twin towers were the strongest and best built buildings in the world, and nothing could bring them down.
What most also didn’t realize was the raw force of the dust cloud following the collapse of the south tower. Those who outran or covered their faces against the debris bomb most likely saved themselves from years of medical issues, or worse. As it was founded much later that this debris cloud, and ash, which lingered in the area for months, was filled with billions of toxins and harmful particles.
The Glade’s inscription encapsulates its purpose:
This Memorial Glade is dedicated
To those whose actions in our time of need
Led to their injury, sickness, and death
Responders and recovery workers
Survivors and community members
Suffering long after September 11, 2001
From exposure to hazards and toxins
That hung heavy in the air
Here and beyond this site known as Ground Zero
And at the Pentagon
And near Shanksville, Pennsylvania
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
Here we honor the tens of thousands
From across America and around the world
Who came to help and to heal
Whose selflessness and resolve
Perseverance and courage
Renewed the spirit of a grieving city
Gave hope to the nation
And inspired the world.
The jumpers started at 8:46.
Networks had the tape. They hid Americans choosing the air over the fire.
Then they spent 25 years treating the word Islam like a crime. The footage was “too graphic.” The truth was forbidden.
This day is stamped in my heart forever...
The 17 Minutes That Changed the History of America and the World
Surely, many people still remember September 11, 2001 — the day images from New York were broadcast around the world and became one of the defining memories of the modern era.
At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into floors 93 through 99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At the time, many people still had no idea what was really happening. But just 17 minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 struck floors 77 through 85 of the South Tower.
The appearance of the second aircraft completely changed the way people understood what was happening. This was no longer an isolated aviation accident, but a coordinated and deliberate attack. From Brooklyn Heights, cameraman Park Foreman captured one of the most widely recognized images of that day, as the Boeing 767 slammed into the South Tower and a fireball erupted.
After that, events unfolded at a speed few people could have imagined. Just 56 minutes after being struck by the aircraft, the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. At 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed as well.
According to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the collapses were caused by a combination of the aircraft impacts, the dislodging of fireproofing from structural steel members, and large fires spreading across multiple floors. Together, these factors severely weakened the buildings' structural systems, ultimately leading to their collapse.
In less than two hours, what had once been an iconic part of New York had become a site the world would later come to know as Ground Zero. A total of 2,977 people were killed in the September 11 attacks. At the World Trade Center alone, 343 members of the New York City Fire Department, 23 NYPD officers, and other law-enforcement personnel died while responding to the disaster.
But the attacks did not take place only in New York. At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, home to the U.S. Department of Defense. The attack killed 125 people inside the building and all 59 people aboard the aircraft.
Meanwhile, United Airlines Flight 93 was heading toward Washington, D.C. After learning what had happened through phone calls with family members and people on the ground, a group of passengers decided to fight back against the hijackers. Their attempt to regain control of the aircraft ended when Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m. The 9/11 Commission concluded that the aircraft's intended target may have been the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
After that day, America began to change in ways that perhaps no one could have imagined that morning. In aviation, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act on November 19, 2001, laying the foundation for the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and establishing a new federal system for screening passengers and baggage.
Those changes extended far beyond airports. On the international stage, the United States launched its war in Afghanistan in 2001 and later expanded its military intervention into Iraq in 2003. The Costs of War project at Brown University has documented the enormous human, financial, and social costs of the post-9/11 wars, as well as consequences that continued long after major military operations officially ended.
Looking back at September 11, 2001, what makes the event such a historic turning point is not only what happened during those few short hours. It is also what changed afterward: how a nation viewed security, how people moved through airports, how the United States exercised military power, and how the world understood the threat of terrorism.
And perhaps that is why, more than two decades later, images from that morning still make people stop and watch. Because sometimes history does not begin with a grand declaration. Sometimes, it can begin with just 17 minutes — the span of time between two aircraft striking two towers, yet enough to change America and open an entirely different chapter in world history.
🚨La policía no quiso esa cinta el 11-S.
No es mío el video. Lo filmó Kei Sugimoto, un japonés de 24 años, desde un tejado a 3 km de las Torres. Ese mismo día intentó entregarlo. No se lo aceptaron.
23 años después encontró las cintas deteriorándose y las publicó. Casi se pierde un archivo de un testigo. Por eso lo comparto: no por el morbo, sino porque esta historia casi se queda en un armario.
jason att@cked his mom and sister today and his mom went live on Facebook and called the police to come arrest him.
Jason started be@ting her up again while she was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher 😭
These are some of the final recorded FDNY radio communications from inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
In the final minutes before the tower collapsed, firefighters were still climbing toward the impact zone, searching for survivors and calling for more men to come up.
Battalion Chief Orio Palmer had reached the 78th floor. Lt. Joseph Leavey of Ladder 15 was climbing toward him. With barely two minutes remaining, Palmer called Battalion 9 Chief Edward Geraghty and told him they had access to the floors above.
Geraghty's response: “All right, I'm on my way up, Orio.”
Seconds later, a Ladder 15 firefighter radioed that he was trapped in an elevator shaft: “We're chopping through the wall to get out.”
The radio signal disappeared shortly afterward. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m.
Orio Palmer, Joseph Leavey and Edward Geraghty were killed that morning. They were still going up while others were trying to get out.
Note: Some images used in this clip are unverified. For the sake of accuracy, I have not attempted to identify those individuals.
This is the part they don’t play.
Melissa Doi. 32. 83rd floor. South Tower.
“I feel fire.”
Then she makes sure her mother hears it anyway:
“Tell her I love her so much. I love her. She was the best mother a person could ever have.”
An only child. They told her to go back upstairs. She almost got out.
Never forget her name. Never forget who did this.