Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, 2001, the world watched on television as residents of New York and Washington witnessed live the largest terrorist attack in history, with hijacked planes by jihadists being hurled into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building. A fourth airplane, believed to be headed toward the White House or the Capitol, crashed in Pennsylvania after a desperate attempt by the passengers to regain control of the aircraft.
The traumatic event that killed almost 3,000 people, including the 19 hijackers, was the deadliest on American soil since the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, and it remains vivid in the memory of Americans.
Read also: Why 9/11-related deaths are already expected to surpass the victims of the day of the attack
A recent national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that almost all Americans (95%) still can remember exactly where they were or what they were doing when they first heard the news of the September 11 attacks, and a little more than half (51%) said the attacks significantly changed life in the United States.
Public concerns about another terrorist attack stabilized at a significant percentage since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In October 2001, just over a quarter of respondents (28%) said they were very concerned about another attack, a share that fell to 16% in the summer of 2002 and stands at 23% in the current survey. The current survey was conducted largely immediately after the August 10 disclosures that a terrorist plot against transatlantic flights had been foiled.
Geopolitical Impact
Geopolitically, the fight against terrorism was the main legacy of the tragedy. OpenDemocracy, an independent media platform, called it the “global counterterrorism architecture,” established not only by the United States and its direct allies but also at the level of the UN.
This architecture was based on four pillars: addressing the conditions that fuel the spread of terrorism; preventing and countering terrorism; strengthening the capacities of states and of the UN itself for this purpose; and, finally, ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law in the context of the fight against terrorism.
In the American case, it was not difficult to secure immediate support for the measures. With broad congressional approval, the George W. Bush administration, the American president at the time, used the attacks of September 11 as justification to apply military force against Afghanistan, since the country housed the leadership of the al-Qaeda organization. Two years later, the U.S. also invaded Iraq, although that country was not directly linked to the attacks.
The Americans did not withdraw definitively from Afghanistan until 2021, when the war had already cost tens of thousands of lives and more than $2 trillion in military spending.
Some experts, however, argued that the American military interventions created an environment conducive for powers such as Russia and China and Israel to legitimize their actions against internal and external enemies.
And even the direct enemies faced by the U.S. were not properly defeated, though several leaders, such as Osama bin Laden, were killed. The Taliban, for instance, took control of Afghanistan after two decades of war. And in Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani), a former member of al-Qaeda, is now the president.
Read also: How 3 victims of 9/11 in the Twin Towers were identified after nearly 24 years
Economic Impact
Large economies were already under the specter of recession before the Twin Towers fell in New York. The bursting of the dot-com bubble occurred in 2000, but the attacks deepened the crisis. Consumer and business confidence plummeted to historic lows in the weeks following the attacks.
In the stock market it plummeted; the New York Stock Exchange closed for four days of trading for the first time since 1933. When markets reopened, the Dow fell 7% in a single day — the worst points drop in history up to that time — and collapsed 14% in the first week. Yet less than a month later, stocks had returned to pre-attack levels.
The Federal Reserve injected money into the financial system to avert a banking collapse. In the following months, the Fed enacted several interest rate cuts to stabilize the markets, including an emergency 50-basis-point cut on September 17. By the end of that year, the target rate stood at 1.75%.
Directly affected, several airlines received billions in direct aid and loan guarantees, while new and stringent security rules were implemented, some in effect to this day.
And spending on security, defense, and intelligence has only grown since then. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which became the third-largest department in the United States government.
Although at the time there were estimates of up to $500 billion in direct and indirect losses from the attacks, more recent studies, such as one from the University of Southern California, found that losses due to business interruptions totaled a little over $100 billion, equivalent to 1% of U.S. GDP. According to their estimates, air transportation suffered the largest impact — losses of $35 billion in two years — followed by hotels ($22 billion) and restaurants ($14 billion).
See below a timeline of the 9/11 attacks from 2021, prepared by Miller Center:
5:45 a.m. – Two of the hijackers pass through security at the Portland International Jetport, in Maine. They board a passenger flight to Boston Logan International Airport, and then board American Airlines Flight 11.
7:59 a.m. – Flight 11 takes off from Boston, bound for Los Angeles, California. There are 76 passengers, 11 crew members and 5 hijackers aboard.
8:15 a.m. – United Airlines Flight 175 departs Boston, also bound for Los Angeles. There are 51 passengers, 9 crew members and 5 hijackers aboard.
8:19 – A flight attendant on Flight 11, Betty Ann Ong, alerts ground personnel that a hijacking is underway and that the cabin is inaccessible.
8:20 a.m. – American Airlines Flight 77 departs from Dulles, near Washington, DC, bound for Los Angeles. There are 53 passengers, 6 crew members and 5 hijackers aboard.
8:24 – Mohamed Atta, a hijacker of Flight 11, involuntarily alerts Boston air traffic controllers to the attack. He intended to press the button that would allow him to speak with the passengers on the flight.
8:37 – After hearing Atta’s transmission on Flight 11, Boston air traffic control alerts the Northeast Defense Sector of the U.S. Air Force, which then mobilizes the National Guard to follow the aircraft.
8:42 – United Flight 93 departs from Newark, New Jersey, after a delay due to routine traffic. It was bound for San Francisco, California. There are 33 passengers, 7 crew and 4 hijackers aboard.
8:46 – Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. All passengers aboard are killed instantly, and workers at the WTC are trapped above the 91st floor.
9:03 – Flight 175 collides with the South Tower of the WTC. All on board die instantly, as does an unknown number of people in the tower.
9:05 – President George W. Bush, in a Florida elementary school classroom, is informed about the attack on the second tower. His chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispers the news into the president’s ear. The president does not react – he later said he intended to convey a sense of calm.
9:28 – Hijackers attack Flight 93.
9:37 – Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. All aboard die instantly, as do 125 civilians and military personnel in the building.
9:45 – U.S. airspace is closed during Operation Yellow Ribbon. All civil aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport.
9:55 – Air Force One with President George W. Bush aboard departs Florida.
9:57 – The passengers of Flight 93 begin to run toward the cockpit, in an attempt to retake the aircraft. The hijacker who was in the cockpit begins to rock the plane back and forth in an attempt to destabilize the revolt.
9:59 – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
10:02 – Flight 93 crashes in a vacant field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Although its final target is unknown, it was probably headed for the White House or the U.S. Capitol.
10:18 – President Bush authorizes that any aircraft not descended be shot down.
10:28 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
10:53 – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld orders the U.S. armed forces to a higher state of alert, moving to DEFCON 3.
11:45 – The Air Force One lands at Barksdale Air Force Base, near Shreveport, Louisiana.
12:15 – The airspace in the United States is completely closed to commercial and private flights.
14:30 – Rudy Giuliani, mayor of New York, visits the fallen Twin Towers of the World Trade Center at what comes to be known as Ground Zero.
15 – The Air Force One lands at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and President Bush is immediately taken to a secure bunker capable of withstanding a nuclear attack.
16:30 – The Air Force One leaves Offutt and returns to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
17:30 – Building 7 of the World Trade Center collapses.
20:30 – President Bush addresses the nation: “Today, our nation has seen evil, the worst of human nature,” he said in part.
