Izzy Britt

9/13/18

September 11, A Day to Never Forget

On September 11, 2001, our country was changed forever. At 8:46 am, the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center north tower (Capitalize North Tower and South Tower since they are the proper names of the two towers.) in New York City. Less than 20 minutes later at 9:03 am, the south tower was hit by second hijacked plane.

At 9:59 am, less than an hour after being hit, the south tower collapsed. Then, at 10:28 am, the north also collapsed. The third plane, headed towards the pentagon, crashed in Washington D.C. And lastly, the fourth plane, crashed in Somerset county in Pennsylvania.

The total death toll for 9/11 was about 3,000 and an additional 6,000 injuries. The majority of the people who died, (2,606 of them) were in the World Trade Center or in its direct surroundings.

On the four planes, there was a combined 265 people, and there were no survivors. There were 343 firefighters killed, 72 law enforcement officers, and 55 people in the military.

Seventeen years later, 9/11 is still the worst terrorist attack ever in history, according to the death toll. Months after the attacks, the world, including the United States, has some work to do. More than 1,500 firemen, search and rescue teams, engineers, and other workers were doing the hard jobs of cleaning up the World Trade Center after the tragedy. In May 2002, when the clean up was finished, the workers had moved 108,000 truckloads of debris and about 1.8 million tons of material. The clean up was a success, as it was well under budget and the job was finished ahead of schedule.

After cleaning up the site, the Americans believed that the next building they put in that place should be in memorial of the fallen people From 9/11.

Violence around the country increased following 9/11, because people felt that someone needed to be blamed. Arab-Americans were being targeted, and people thought they were doing the country justice. A year after 9/11, the anti-Muslim hate crimes jumped 1,600 percent and this is further aggravated by a climate of prejudiced that sometimes shows itself in different ways.

In October 2001, the war in Afghanistan had begun. Our troops invaded Afghanistan with ground troops of the special forces. Osama Bin Laden, responsible for the 9/11 attacks, was killed by American soldiers on May 2, 2011 at his compound near Islamabad, Pakistan. He was on the FBI’s “most wanted” list for over a decade.

To this day, we still have 9/11 fresh in our minds, like it happened yesterday. September 11 will always be a tragic day in the country, even around the world, for remembering great loss and to make sure we never forget how our country was shaped.