| From top to bottom: the World Trade Center burning; a section of The Pentagon collapses; Flight 175 crashes into 2 WTC; a fireman requests help at Ground Zero; an engine from Flight 93 is recovered; Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. | |
| Location | New York City; Arlington County, Virginia; and near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. |
|---|---|
| Date | Tuesday, September 11, 2001 8:46 a.m. – 10:28 a.m. (UTC-04:00) |
| Attack type | Aircraft hijacking, mass murder, suicide attack, terrorism |
| Death(s) | 2,977 (+ 19 hijackers) |
| Injured | More than 6,000 |
| Perpetrator(s) | Al-Qaeda led by Osama bin Laden |
September 11th or 9/11 were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C., area on September 11, 2001. On that Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets. The hijackers intentionally crashed two planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; both towers collapsed within two hours. Hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The fourth jet, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to take control before it could reach the hijacker's intended target in Washington, D.C. Nearly 3,000 died in the attacks.
Suspicion quickly fell on al-Qaeda, and in 2004, the group's leader Osama bin Laden, who had initially denied involvement, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives for the attacks. The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror, invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, which had harbored al-Qaeda members. Many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. In May 2011, after years at large, bin Laden was found and killed.
The destruction caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan and had a significant impact on global markets. Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. Numerous memorials were constructed, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the Pentagon Memorial, and the Flight 93 National Memorial. Adjacent to the National Memorial, the 1,776 feet (541 m) One World Trade Center is estimated for completion in 2013.
Since 2001 in the United States, especially in the media, "Ground Zero" is generally understood to mean the site of the World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. The phrase was being applied to the World Trade Center site within hours after the towers collapsed. It appears that the first use of the term on a mainstream North American media outlet in reference to the September 11th attacks was as at approximately 11:55 am when an eye witness who claimed to be a Fox News freelancer referred twice to ground zero. He may also have been the first person to suggest the cause of the collapse of the towers was due to "structural failure due to fires"when most media on 9/11 were likening the collapses of WTC 1,2, and 7 to a building demolition. At 4:41 p.m., in an interview with Peter Jennings on ABC News, attorney and survivor of the attacks Tom Humphreys (spelled "Humphries" on air) said, in reference to the collapse of the South Tower, that
| “ | The tragedy is that the police and fire personnel that tried to help people out of that building were right at Ground Zero when that happened.. | ” |
| “ | Less than four miles behind me is where the Twin Towers stood this morning. But not tonight. Ground Zero, as it's being described, in today's terrorist attacks that have sent aftershocks rippling across the country. | ” |
was aired on NBC at around the same time as Jim Axelrod's report on CBS News. She said:
| “ | We're now just a block away from the World Trade Center and the closer we get to "ground zero" the harder it is to breathe and to see. | ” |
Even years later, the term "Ground zero" has become a shorthand for the site, even after construction on the new One World Trade Center and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum were well underway. In advance of the 10th anniversary of the attacks, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg urged that the "Ground zero" moniker be retired, saying, "... the time has come to call those 16 acres what they are: The World Trade Center and the National September 11th Memorial and Museum."
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