Photo by Jin S. Lee
By The Associated Press
The U.S. is remembering the lives taken and those reshaped by 9/11, marking an anniversary laced this year with presidential campaign politics.
Sept. 11 — the date when hijacked plane attacks killed nearly 3,000 people in 2001 — falls in the thick of the presidential election season every four years, and it comes at an especially pointed moment this time.
President Joe Biden, on the last Sept. 11 of his term and likely his half-century political career, is headed with Harris to the ceremonies in New York, in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, the three sites where commercial jets crashed after al-Qaida operatives took them over on Sept. 11, 2001.
Officials later concluded that the aircraft that crashed near rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was headed toward Washington. It went down after crew members and passengers tried to wrest control from the hijackers.
The attacks killed 2,977 people and left thousands of bereaved relatives and scarred survivors. The planes carved a gash in the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters, and brought down the trade center’s twin towers, which were among the world’s tallest buildings.
The catastrophe also altered U.S. foreign policy, domestic security practices and the mindset of many Americans who had not previously felt vulnerable to attacks by foreign extremists.
Effects rippled around the world and through generations as the U.S. responded by leading a " Global War on Terrorism,” which included invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those operations killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis and thousands of American troops, and Afghanistan became the site of the United States’ longest war.
As the complex legacy of 9/11 continues to evolve, communities around the country have developed remembrance traditions that range from laying wreaths to displaying flags, from marches to police radio messages. Volunteer projects also mark the anniversary, which Congress has titled both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
The Memorial
The 9/11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance, honoring the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993.
Names on the Memorial
Photo by Jin S. Lee
Prior to its opening in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum underwent a multi-year process to verify and arrange the names that would be inscribed into the Memorial’s bronze parapets. All inscribed names represent 9/11 attack homicide victims: people who died as a direct result of injury sustained in the attacks on September 11, 2001, including the impacts of the planes and the building collapses.
Every name can be located by the panel on which it is inscribed. A panel address is comprised of the letter N or S (N for North Pool, S for South Pool) followed by a number 1 through 76. See a full list of names on the Memorial.
The 9/11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance, honoring the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993.
Names on the Memorial
Photo by Jin S. Lee
Prior to its opening in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum underwent a multi-year process to verify and arrange the names that would be inscribed into the Memorial’s bronze parapets. All inscribed names represent 9/11 attack homicide victims: people who died as a direct result of injury sustained in the attacks on September 11, 2001, including the impacts of the planes and the building collapses.
Every name can be located by the panel on which it is inscribed. A panel address is comprised of the letter N or S (N for North Pool, S for South Pool) followed by a number 1 through 76. See a full list of names on the Memorial.
