Photograph by REUTERS / SEAN ADAIR

 

Ten years ago there was no such thing as Facebook (Feb 2004), YouTube (Feb 2005), or Twitter (March 2006); and the ubiquitous device we know as the iPhone (June 2007) was light years away.

Before the morning of September 11th, 2001, the twin 110-story towers of the World Trade Center dominated the New York City skyline.

 

Photograph by REUTERS / SEAN ADAIR

 

On that morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours.

Hijackers crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Following passenger attempts to take control of the fourth hijacked jet, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania before it could reach its intended target in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks. [Source]

 

Photograph by JOSE JIMENEZ/PRIMERA HORA/GETTY IMAGES

 

There were a total of 2,996 deaths, including the 19 hijackers and 2,977 victims. The victims included 246 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors), 2,606 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. All the deaths in the attacks were civilians, except for 55 military personnel killed at the Pentagon. [Source]

 

Photograph by AP PHOTO / RICHARD DREW

 

Over 90% of the workers and visitors who died in the towers had been at or above the points of impact. In the North Tower 1,355 people at or above the point of impact were trapped and died of smoke inhalation, fell or jumped from the tower to escape the smoke and flames, or were killed in the building’s eventual collapse. A further 107 people below the point of impact did not survive.

In the South Tower, one stairwell remained intact allowing 18 people to escape from above the point of impact. 630 people died in the South Tower which was fewer than half of the number killed in the North Tower. Casualties in the South Tower were significantly reduced by the decision of some occupants to start evacuating when the North Tower was struck. At least 200 people fell or jumped to their deaths from the burning towers, landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. [Source]

 

Photograph by AP PHOTO/NYPD, DET. GREG SEMENDINGER

 

Along with the 110-floor Twin Towers, numerous other buildings at the World Trade Center site were destroyed or badly damaged, including WTC buildings 3 though 7 and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The North Tower, South Tower, the Marriott Hotel (3 WTC) and 7 WTC were completely destroyed. The U.S. Customs House (6 World Trade Center), 4 World Trade Center, 5 World Trade Center, and both pedestrian bridges connecting buildings were severely damaged. The Deutsche Bank Building on 130 Liberty Street was partially damaged and demolished later. The two buildings of the World Financial Center also suffered damage.

The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned as uninhabitable because of toxic conditions inside the office tower, and was deconstructed. The Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was condemned due to extensive damage in the attacks, and is being rebuilt. [Source]

 

Photograph by NOAA

 

The World Trade Center site (ZIP code: 10048), also known as “Ground Zero” after the September 11 attacks, sits on 16 acres (65,000 m2) in Lower Manhattan in New York City. One World Trade Center (previously coined the “Freedom Tower” by Governor Pataki) is the centerpiece of the redesign. The building will rise to 1,362 feet (415 m), the height of the original World Trade Center south tower, and its antenna will rise to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 m). The antenna’s height refers to 1776, the year in which the United States Declaration of Independence was signed.

A memorial, museum and transportation hub will also be a part of the World Trade Center Site. [Source]

 

Photograph by AP PHOTO/MARK LENNIHAN

 

The Tribute in Light is an art installation of 88 searchlights placed next to the site of the World Trade Center to create two vertical columns of light in remembrance of the September 11 attacks. It is produced annually by The Municipal Art Society of New York.

It initially ran as a temporary installation from March 11 to April 14, 2002, and was launched again in 2003 to mark the second anniversary of the attack. As of 2010, it has been repeated every year on September 11. It had been announced that 2008 would be its final year,[1] but the tribute was continued in 2009. On December 17, 2009, it was confirmed that the tribute would continue through to the tenth anniversary of the attacks in 2011. [Source]

 

Photograph by AP PHOTO/SUSAN WALSH

 

A memorial called “Reflecting Absence” honors the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The memorial, designed by Peter Walker and Israeli-American architect Michael Arad, consists of a field of trees interrupted by the footprints of the twin towers. Pools of water fill the footprints, underneath which sits a memorial space whose walls bear the names of the victims. The slurry wall, which holds back the Hudson River in the west and was an integral part of Libeskind’s proposal, remains exposed.

Walker and Arad were selected from more than 5,000 entrants in the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition in January 2004.

 

Photograph by PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

 

The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, is seen August 21, 2011, in the southwest corner of The Pentagon Building. It is a permanent outdoor memorial to the 184 men, women, and children who lost their lives as victims of the attack, killed both in the building and on American Airlines Flight 77 in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Across the memorial grounds, 184 bench-like structures, each one dedicated to a victim, are clustered in what seems like an uneven and unsettling array throughout the main grounds of the memorial. [Source]

 

Photograph by CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

 

The sun sets over Jersey City and the World Trade Center site, with One World Trade Center to the right on August 28, 2011 in New York City.