20 years ago on September 11, the world changed forever
Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
20 years ago on September 11, the New York City skyline changed forever. In a terrorist attack, two planes were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Centre in America’s largest city. As well as the Pentagon in Washington D.C., while a fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Each and every one of us can recall where we were that day. For those looking on in horror from overseas, it was probably engrossed by television footage. In Manhattan it may have been mere streets away.
Where smoke billowed from the twin towers and pictures of missing loved ones were emblazoned onto shopfronts, is now replaced by two powerful beams of light in the heart of ground zero. A reminder in the evening of what once stood. And while many events have come to define the city that never sleeps, an attempt to tear people apart was dashed when people of all different race, ability, sexuality and religion instead came together.
Revisiting the most defining pictures from the 9/11 attacks over the past two decades has become no-less easy. Sadness will mar the day for many. But it also serves as a reminder on how powerful we are when unified.
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Thomas Nilsson/ Getty Images)394261 29: A woman reacts in terror as she looks up to see the World Trade Center go up in flames September 11, 2001 in New York City after two airplanes slammed into the twin towers in an alleged terrorist attack. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, motorists exit their cars in disbelief and look on as smoke rises from the buildings of the World Trade Center, Jersey City, New Jersey (3 miles West of Ground Zero), September 11, 2001. (Photo by Stuart Lutz/Gado/Getty Images).NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001 in New York City. The crash of two airliners hijacked by terrorists loyal to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and subsequent collapse of the twin towers killed some 2,800 people. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: Firefighter Gerard McGibbon, of Engine 283 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, prays after the World Trade Center buildings collapsed September 11, 2001 after two hijacked airplanes slammed into the twin towers in a terrorist attack that killed some 3,000 people. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)Crowds swarm over the Manhattan Bridge to leave Manhattan the morning of the 9-11 attack. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: The streets of downtown New York are covered in debris after both World Trade Towers collapsed from a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)A survivor sits outside the World Trade Center after two planes hit the building September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)394287 01: Guatemalan pedestrians watch on TV September 11, 2001 in Guatemala City, Guatemala the moment when a second plane commandeered by unknown hijackers slammed into New York’s World Trade Center. (Photo by Andrea Nieto/Getty Images)394375 15: Early morning light hits the smoke and wreckage of the World Trade Center September 13, 2001 in New York City, two days after the twin towers were destroyed when hit by two hijacked passenger jets. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 13, 2001: A rescue worker is pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center September 13, 2001 in New York City two days after two hijacked airplanes slammed into the twin towers, levelling them and killing nearly 3,000 people. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: An unidentified New York City firefighter walks away from Ground Zero after the collapse of the Twin Towers September 11, 2001 in New York City. The World Trade Center’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorists using commercial airliners as missiles.Ray’s Pizza in Greenwich Village after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. (Photo by David Turnley/Getty Images)394261 204: Cancelled flights are displayed on monitors at the Los Angeles Airport terminal September 10, 2001 in Los Angeles, CA. The airport was closed after two planes bound for Los Angeles hit New York City’s World Trade Center. (Photo by Jason Kirk/Getty Images)U.S. President George W. Bush sits at his desk in the Oval Office after addressing the nation about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, DC September11, 2001 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 13, 2001: Rescue workers sift through the wreckage of the World Trade Center September 13, 2001 in New York City, two days after two hijacked airplanes slammed into the twin towers, levelling them in an alleged terrorist attack. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)A couple holding each other are evacuating the area just minutes before the World Trade Center collapses. (Photo by Jennifer S. Altman/WireImage) *** Local Caption ***President George W Bush embraces a firefighter as he speaks to the firefighter during President Bush’s visit to New York during the aftermath of the 9/11 incident, New York, New York, September 14, 2001. Image courtesy National Archives. (Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).NEW YORK: Workers gather before the last support beam from the south tower of the former World Trade Center is removed and loaded onto a flatbed truck during a ceremony at Ground Zero May 28, 2002 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)394304 07: Wellwishers cheer as recovery personnel drive by on their way to the World Trade Center site September 12, 2001 in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
