World Trade Center Attack
September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in New York City. Terrorists hijacked four passenger jets that day and flew two of them into the World Trade Center towers.
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2nd plane
Terrorist on a suicide mission forces a hijacked plane full of innocent passengers to fly into the second World Trade Center tower on September 11, 2001.
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Flag half staff notice: Sept. 11th Remembrance
by Governor Matt Mead release
September 10, 2014
Governor Matt Mead has ordered both the U.S. and State of Wyoming flags be flown at half-staff statewide from sunrise to sunset on Thursday, September 11, 2014 to honor those who lost their lives 13 years ago and to mark Patriot Day and the National Day of Service and Remembrance.
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Additional information:
The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th, or 9/11)were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. The attacks killed almost 3,000 people and caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage.
Four passenger airliners were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists so they could be flown into buildings in suicide attacks. Two of those planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, were crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Within two hours, both towers collapsed with debris and the resulting fires causing partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the WTC complex, as well as significant damage to ten other large surrounding structures. A third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, leading to a partial collapse in its western side. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was targeted at Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after its passengers tried to overcome the hijackers.
In total, almost 3,000 people died in the attacks, including the 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes. It also was the deadliest incident for firefighters and for law enforcement officers in the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively.
In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security was created to coordinate domestic anti-terrorism efforts. The USA Patriot Act gave the federal government greater powers, including the authority to detain foreign terror suspects for a week without charge, to monitor telephone communications, e-mail, and Internet use by terror suspects, and to prosecute suspected terrorists without time restrictions. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered that airplane cockpits be reinforced to prevent terrorists gaining control of planes, and assigned sky marshals to flights. Further, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act made the federal government, rather than airports, responsible for airport security. The law created a federal security force to inspect passengers and luggage.
The damaged section of the Pentagon was rebuilt and occupied within a year of the attacks. The temporary World Trade Center PATH station opened in late 2003 and construction of the new 7 World Trade Center was completed in 2006. Work on rebuilding the main World Trade Center site is currently under construction at the site and on May 20, 2013, One World Trade Center became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,776 ft (541 m) with the installation of the spire that rests atop the building. Three more office towers are expected to be built on the World Trade Center site one block east of where the original towers stood. Construction has begun on all three of these towers; they are expected to be completed after One World Trade Center.
One of the first memorials to the attack was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the footprints of the World Trade Center towers. The Pentagon Memorial was completed and opened to the public on the seventh anniversary of the attacks in 2008. It consists of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was repaired in 2001–2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight 77 crashed into the building. In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a permanent Flight 93 National Memorial is planned to include a sculpted grove of trees forming a circle around the crash site, bisected by the plane's path, while wind chimes will bear the names of the victims. A temporary memorial is located 500 yards from the crash site.
On every anniversary, in New York City, the names of the victims who died there are read out against a background of somber music. The President of the United States attends a memorial service at the Pentagon, and asks Americans to observe Patriot Day with a moment of silence. Smaller services are held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which are usually attended by the President's spouse.
By presidential decree, the American flag is flown at half-staff at the White House and on all U.S. government buildings and establishments throughout the world on the anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001, now called Patriot Day in the United States. American flags are also encouraged to be displayed on individual American homes. Additionally, a moment of silence is observed to correspond with the attacks, beginning at 8:46 A.M. (Eastern Daylight Time), the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Because Patriot Day is not a federal holiday, schools and business do not close in observance of the occasion, although memorial ceremonies for the victims are held as citizens do remembrances in their own ways.
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