What happened?

September 11, 2001 was one of the worst days in American History. That day four planes were hijacked and crashed into many of the nation's most treasured buildings and monuments. The first attack was at 8:46 am when a group of five terrorists associated with al-Qaeda crashed a plane that they had hijacked into one of two twin towers. Many, if not all of the people under and above the point of impact were killed. Not to mention every single person on the plane, and in the floors where the plane hit, who were killed. The second attack took place at 9:03 am when another group of hijackers took control of yet another plane and crashed it into the second of the twin towersThe bleow image was created by the federal government to show the impact point of the two planes

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The third plane hit the pentagon at about 9:37 am and the fourth plane was supposedly headed toward the capitol, or maybe even the White house! However since this was the last of four attacks people had caught on to what was happening and called their family and friends on planes to warn them of what was happening. The passengers on the hijacked plane realized quickly what was going on and they began trying to re-take control of the plane. They were successful in the sense that instead of crashing into another one of the nation's monuments, the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Honoring the victims

Helping families heal after a large atrocity like this is quite difficult. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum tried very hard to heal the wounds of the families of those lost in 9-11, 2001 by creating the 9-11 Memorial. The Memorial’s was designed by Michael Arad and consists of two twin reflecting pools with the names of all the men and women who passed away inscribed on the outside of the pool. Memorial designer Michael Arad explains that the design concept “allows us to place the names of those who died that day next to each other in a meaningful way, marking the names of family and friends together, as they had lived and died" (National September 11 Memorial & Museum). This memorial will forever give these families a place to go and visit to help them remember their loved ones. While it will not bring them back it does give the family some closure. Below is a photo of one of the reflecting pools: