World Trade Center

Story Summary

I asked God
to let me see my little unborn child,
and somehow,
in the future,
to let me touch this baby.

Will Jimeno
Port Authority Police Officer
Trapped Beneath the World Trade Center

September 11, 2001

Shining brilliantly in the clear blue sky above America’s east coast, the sun promised a good travel day. People boarding planes in Boston, Newark and Washington, D.C. would encounter few, if any, air-traffic delays on this Tuesday morning.

The summer of 2001 was nearing its end as thousands of lower Manhattan office workers followed their usual morning routine. Many worked in the skyline-defining twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center. In Washington, meanwhile, employees of the Department of Defense were at their desks in a newly reinforced section of the Pentagon.

On this September 11 morning, four planes were scheduled to leave American airports within twenty-five minutes of each other. Aboard each of those planes were terrorists who were part of a coordinated plan to kill innocent people. Had the weather been bad, or the flights inordinately delayed, the terrorists’ meticulously well-planned actions may not have occurred as they did.

But this is not the story of what might-have-been. It is the story of the worst attack on U.S. soil since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is the story of courage and bravery in the midst of confusion and fear. And it is the story of selfless people who put themselves in harm's way to help others.