Thread: 9/11 – Tenth Anniversary

The tenth anniversary of the terrible attack on the World Centre happens today.

A famous landmark in New York City was the twin towers of the World Centre situated in the Banking sector of Lower Manhattan. They could be seen towering above other buildings from many part of the city.

Pictures of how New York saw the Twin Torwers

A view from ground level

The September 11 attacks (often referred to as September 11th or 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into both of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. Including also a shopping Mall underground that also had two subway stations. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

The death toll of the attacks was 2,996, including the 19 hijackers. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries. In addition, there is at least one secondary death – one person was ruled by a medical examiner to have died from lung disease due to exposure to dust from the World Trade Centre’s collapse.

The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror: it invaded Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harboured al-Qaeda terrorists. The United States also enacted the USA PATRIOT Act. Many other countries also strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Some American stock exchanges stayed closed for the rest of the week following the attack and posted enormous losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries. The destruction of billions of dollars’ worth of office space caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan.

The damage to the Pentagon was cleared and repaired within a year, and the Pentagon Memorial was built adjacent to the building. The rebuilding process has started on the World Trade Centre site. In 2006 a new office tower was completed on the site of 7 World Trade Centre.

Five months before the terror attack we visited the World Trade Centre, and on the top floor we had a coffee in the café. We were served by a young girl, who told us, how proud and pleased she was of finding a job in such a famous place. My thoughts on this day immediately go to that young girl, I will never know whether she perished or not, but the same must be said about others, this must be a tragic day for people that lost love ones. Numerous building connected to WTC, collapsed including Marriott’s Hotel where we have used the rest rooms more than once. The shock when I turned the TV on and saw both towers with smoke pouring from them.

Those poor people at the top of the building having nowhere to go, except for at least 200 that jumped to their death My pictures below are of the memories I have of seeing the stunning views from the South Tower, and the views those poor terrified people had with nowhere to go except to jump before the towers collapsed

Views from the roof of the South Tower. (It is said the roof was never open, well it was when we were there.)

1 World Trade Centre (Freedom Tpwer) is currently under construction at the site and, at 1,776 ft (541 m) upon completion in 2013, it will become one of the tallest buildings in North America. Three more towers were originally expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site. Ground was broken for the Flight 93 National Memorial on November 8, 2009, and the first phase of construction is expected to be ready for the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2011.

Below Ground Zero a coupe of years later, and the new tower being cinconstructed taken November 2010.

My thoughts go to America, and my tributes are memories of the World Trade Centre.

This is indeed a very sad day and I trust everyone in The CruisingLineFans will share my sentiments and sympathy to all who perished on or after that fateful day.

I want to say:

Estonians send sympathy to America.

Thank Norman for the pictures -- really great ones there.

I have been to New York before and after the Twin Towers -- it was shock to see that hole when we returned after 9/11 -- I have to admit -- I cried.

We live only 1 1/2 hours from Shanksville, PA where the 4th plane went down. There has been a lot of talk -- what if Flight 93 had gone down in Pittsburgh? It would have been way worse than New York since so many people had already gotten into town when the first attacks started to happen. And we are a city of bridges.