Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the United States continues to grapple with the consequences of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.
When the hijacked planes crashed and the buildings collapsed that sunny September morning in 2001, shock and grief spread far beyond New York City, rural Pennsylvania and the Washington, D.C., area. The attacks shattered Americans’ sense of security and their perception of the country’s place in the world, creating an unwanted moment of national unity.
A look back 25 years later
A quarter-century later, Lower Manhattan has largely recovered and transformed. The Financial District, now known as FiDi, has twice as many residents, along with new restaurants and bars. The rebuilt One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the United States, rises 1,776 feet, a symbolic reference to the year of American independence.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum receives about 9,000 visitors a day. At the Pentagon, more than one million people visit its outdoor memorial each year, where 184 benches sit above pools of water along the path of the third hijacked plane.
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Near the Pennsylvania field where the fourth plane crashed outside Shanksville, a white marble wall bears the names of the passengers who died. Its inscription reads: “A common field one day. A field of honor forever.”
The country will come together Friday to commemorate a shared national tragedy, although many of the changes that followed the attacks remain controversial.
The United States went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, with both conflicts lasting far longer than initially expected. The Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, created after 9/11, have faced protests over their treatment of migrants and refugees.
Then-President George W. Bush also sought expanded presidential powers, including military tribunals and harsh interrogation methods that critics described as torture. Those practices have continued to complicate the prosecution of terrorism cases.
Osama bin Laden, the founder of Al Qaeda and a key figure behind the attacks, was killed during a U.S. raid in Pakistan. However, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused of being the mastermind of the attacks, remains imprisoned at the U.S. naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
A military judge ruled that confessions Mohammed made to FBI agents could not be used against him because they were not voluntary. He was subjected to waterboarding 183 times while previously held at secret CIA prisons. His trial is currently scheduled to begin June 5, 2028.
How the September 11 attacks unfolded
On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 men hijacked four commercial airplanes traveling to California from Boston, Newark and Washington, D.C.
Two planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, departed from Boston for Los Angeles, each carrying five hijackers. At Washington Dulles International Airport, another five hijackers boarded American Airlines Flight 77, also bound for Los Angeles. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, departed Newark International Airport for San Francisco with four hijackers aboard.
Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. The third struck the Pentagon, causing part of the building to collapse. The fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville after passengers attempted to storm the cockpit.
Fifteen of the Al Qaeda hijackers were from Saudi Arabia. The others were from Egypt, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.
