On the morning of September 11, 2001, a series of coordinated attacks involving hijacked commercial aircraft targeted the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, making it one of the deadliest acts of terrorism on American soil.
Nearly 3,000 lives were lost that day. The immediate aftermath triggered sweeping legislative, military and institutional changes across the U.S. These attacks prompted the initiation of the Global War on Terror, led to the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security and resulted in the enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, permanently transforming the country’s domestic security protocols.
Now, 25 years have passed since this horrifying attack that shook the United States to its core, with people now inhabiting a deeply altered post-9/11 world defined by rigid security strictures and sweeping surveillance.
Below are photos from that day that remind us of both the devastation and the resilience of those who survived.
Photo:
Reuters
An American flag flies near the base of the destroyed world trade center in new york, September 11, 2001. Planes crashed into each of the two towers, causing them to collapse.
Photo:
AP
Emergency personnel work in the debris of the World Trade Centre in New York, Wednesday, September 12, 2001. Rescue workers dug for bodies in mountains of rubble as the city struggled to recover from an airborne attack on the World Trade Centre on Tuesday that shut down the nation’s financial capital and created a new skyline etched in terror.
Photo:
AP
Rescue workers and vehicles are deployed near the site of the World Trade Centre in New York, Wednesday, September 12, 2001.
Photo:
Reuters
Combo TV images show a tower of the World Trade Centre collapsing after two planes crashed into the complex on September 11, 2001, destroying New York’s mighty twin towers.
Photo:
AP
The 9/11 attack’s “falling man” was one of the most iconic and haunting images, depicting a person falling headfirst from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Centre on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
Photo:
AP
Smoke, flames and debris erupt from one of the World Trade Centre towers as a plane strikes it on September 11, 2001. The first tower was already burning following a terror attack minutes earlier. Terrorists crashed planes into the two buildings, causing both towers to collapse.
Photo:
Reuters
The south tower of the World Trade Centre bursts into flames after being struck by United Airlines Flight 175 in New York on September 11, 2001.
Photo:
Reuters
With the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground, a plane explodes after hitting the second tower of the World Trade Centre as the other tower burns, in New York, September 11, 2001. Both towers of the complex collapsed after hijacked planes hit them.
Photo:
Reuters
The remaining tower of New York’s World Trade Centre, Tower 2, dissolves in a cloud of dust and debris about a half hour after the first Twin Tower collapsed September 11, 2001. The pictures were taken from across the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Photo:
Reuters
Firemen work around the World Tade Center after both towers collapsed in New York on September 11, 2001. The kamikaze airplane attacks that destroyed New York’s World Trade Centre and damaged the Pentagon on Tuesday were unprecedented in the history of civil aviation, security experts said.
Photo:
Greg Semendinger/AP
In this September 11, 2001 photo made by the New York City Police Department and provided by ABC News, smoke and ash engulf lower Manhattan after terrorists flew two airliners into the World trade Centre towers.
Photo:
Reuters
A rescue helicopter surveys damage to the Pentagon as firefighters battle flames after an airliner crashed into the building in this September 11, 2001, file photo.
Photo:
Reuters
The World Trade Centre in New York City burns as a police helicopter flies nearby early September 11, 2001. Both towers were hit by planes crashing into the building. Shortly after this photo was taken, both towers fell.
Photo:
AP
Firefighters and emergency personnel remove debris from the site of the World Trade Centre towers’ collapse in New York, September 13, 2001.
Photo:
Seth Wenig
An original piece of the Twin Towers, known as a “trident,” is lowered into its permanent location at the 9/11 Memorial Museum at ground zero in New York, Tuesday, September 7, 2010. Behind the “trident” is One World Trade Center, still under construction.
Photo:
AP
Firefighters raise a flag late in the afternoon on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, in the wreckage of the World Trade Centre towers in New York. In the most devastating terrorist onslaught ever waged against the United States, knife-wielding hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Centre, toppling its twin 110-story towers.
Photo:
Mark Lennihan/AP
Photos of victims of the attacks of September 11, and messages from their loved ones, are shown at a news conference on September 10, 2012 in New York. On the eve of the September 11 anniversary, the faces and recorded voices of those who died were unveiled as part of the future 9/11 Memorial Museum.
Photo:
Reuters
A family member of an Israeli victim of the September 11 attacks, points to the victim’s name, engraved on a monument, during a memorial event at the 9/11 Living Memorial Plaza in Jerusalem on September 11, 2016.
Published – September 11, 2026 08:00 am IST
