The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Remembering 9/11
This week, Americans are remembering the events of Sept. 11, 2001 — two decades ago. The Mini Page reminds us of what happened that day and why it’s still important 20 years later.
What happened
On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 members of a group called al-qaida (al-kie-duh) hijacked* four airplanes with many passengers and crew.
Some of these hijackers deliberately crashed two passenger planes into the two skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Other hijackers crashed a jet plane into the Pentagon, the U.S.
Department of Defense headquarters in Arlington,
Virginia, outside
Washington,
D.C.
Hijackers tried to crash a fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, into the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Brave passengers and crew on Flight 93 heard about the other attacks when they made calls from the jet. They decided to stop the hijackers before they could hurt more people.
* A hijacking (High-jack-ing) is when people steal a plane, train, car or boat by using force or threats.
Flight 93 crashed in an empty field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Those passengers and crew lost their own lives, but they saved people in Washington.
About 3,000 people were killed in the four attacks of that day.
Remembering the victims
Since the attacks in 2001, people have built memorials to those who lost their lives in three main places: the site of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia, and the field in Pennsylvania where Flight 93 crashed.
At the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York, an FDNY Ladder 3 firetruck recovered after the attacks is on display.
The truck was damaged by falling debris, burned by fires and rusted. The front cab was separated, and the aerial ladder was partially crushed.
The National 9/11 Memorial and Museum includes objects found at the scene, wreckage of the buildings, and oral histories, or interviews with survivors and first responders, about what happened that day.
Each year, on Sept. 11, families of the victims gather at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza to read out loud the names of 2,983 people who lost their lives that day and in the 1993 bombing at the same site.
Virginia site
The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial honors the 184 people who lost their lives when a plane crashed into the building.
The memorial is designed with 184 stainless steel benches, each marked with the name of a victim of this attack. Each bench is set over a lighted pool of water, so the light and water reflect off the benches.
Flight 93 memorial
The Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, includes a Wall of Names. This marble wall, which lies under the flight path of the plane, features the names of the 40 passengers and crew who were aboard that morning.
A Tower of Voices at the site, which stands 93 feet tall, has 40 wind chimes, one for each victim.