Image Source: Smoke Pours From The World Trade Center After Being Hit By Two Planes September 11, 2001 In New York City. (Photo By Craig Allen/Getty Images)
Trigger Warning: This article contains graphic details and images that might be disturbing for some readers
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on September 10, 2021
Thousands of photographs and videos captured the horror and devastation brought on by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The nation watched in shock as planes hijacked by terrorists from the Islamic extremist group al-Qaida crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 lives were claimed by the tragedy, which remains the deadliest foreign attack on U.S. soil to date. What followed was a 20-year war in Afghanistan launched by then-President George W. Bush to hunt for culpable al-Qaida militants sheltered by another Islamic militant group, the Taliban.
Image Source: Flowers are placed over names at the September 11th Memorial on September 9, 2021, in New York City. New York City and much of the nation are preparing for the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in both New York City and Washington D.C. The United States has officially ended its participation in the war in Afghanistan, a two-decade-long conflict that began shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Almost 2,500 U.S. service members have died in the conflict, and thousands of Afghan troops, police personnel, and civilians have also been killed. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
More than two decades later, the war officially came to an end on August 31, 2021, when the Biden administration completely withdrew all military personnel from the region. However, the pain, desolation and trauma caused by 9/11 remain fresh in the minds of Americans even today.
Here are 20 pictures from that dark day in American history that captured the shock and horror of 9/11:
1.
Image Source: Smoke pours from the World Trade Center after being hit by two planes on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo By Craig Allen/Getty Images)
2.
Image Source: The World Trade Center burns after two planes hit it on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
3.
Image Source: A fireman runs as the World Trade Center crumbles after two planes hit the building on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
4.
Image Source: A man falls to his death from the World Trade Center after two planes hit the twin towers on September 11, 2001, in New York City in a terrorist attack. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
5.
Image Source: People hang from windows of World Trade Center after two hijacked passenger planes hit the building on September 11, 2001, in New York City in a terrorist attack. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
6.
Image Source: A woman collapses in grief at the site of the fire and collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, in New York City after two airplanes slammed into the twin towers in a terrorist attack. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
7.
Image Source: FBI agents, firefighters, rescue workers, and engineers work at the Pentagon crash site on September 14, 2001, after a highjacked American Airlines flight slammed into the building on September 11. The terrorist attack caused extensive damage to the west face of the building and followed similar attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. (Photo by Cedric H. Rudisill/DOD/Getty Images)
8.
Image Source: FBI agents, firefighters, rescue workers, and engineers work at the Pentagon crash site on September 14, 2001, after a highjacked American Airlines flight slammed into the building on September 11. The terrorist attack caused extensive damage to the west face of the building and followed similar attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. (Photo by Cedric H. Rudisill/DOD/Getty Images)
9.
Image Source: New York City firefighters work at the World Trade Center after two hijacked planes crashed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, in New York. (Photo by Ron Agam/Getty Images)
10.
Image Source: An unidentified New York City firefighter walks away from Ground Zero after the collapse of the Twin Towers on 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. (Photo by Anthony Correia/Getty Images)
11.
Image Source: Smoke rises from The Pentagon after a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, in Washington D.C. (Photo By U.S. Navy/Getty Images)
12.
Image Source: People run away as the second tower of the World Trade Center crumbles down after a plane hit the building on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
13.
Image Source: 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)
14.
Image Source: People walk in the street in the area where the World Trade Center buildings collapsed on September 11, 2001, after two airplanes slammed into the twin towers in a terrorist attack. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
15.
Image Source: Policemen and firemen run away from the huge dust cloud caused as the World Trade Center's Tower One collapses after terrorists crashed two hijacked planes into the twin towers, September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
16.
Image Source: A survivor sits outside the World Trade Center after two planes hit the building on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
17.
Image Source: People evacuate the area around the World Trade Center after it was hit by two planes on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
18.
Image Source: A woman reacts in terror as she looks up to see the World Trade Center go up in flames on September 11, 2001, in New York City after two airplanes slammed into the twin towers in a terrorist attack. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
19.
Image Source: A paramedic and a policemen breath oxygen after the first tower of the Twin Towers crumbled down after two planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, in New York City. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
20.
Image Source: Firefighter Tony James cries while attending the funeral service for New York Fire Department Chaplain Rev. Mychal Judge, in front of the St. Francis of Assisi Church on September 15, 2001, in New York City. Judge died while giving the last rites to a fireman in the collapse of the World Trade Center. The World Trade Center was destroyed after both the landmark towers were struck by two hijacked planes in a terrorist attack on September 11. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
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