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Conflict9:59 and 10:28 a.m., 11 September 2001

Collapse of the World Trade Center

Also called: Collapse of the Twin Towers

On 11 September 2001 the south tower of the World Trade Center, weakened by fire, collapsed at 9:59 a.m. and the north tower at 10:28. In New York 2,753 people were killed, among them 343 firefighters.

The remaining shell of the north tower, Ground Zero, 14 September 2001
The remaining shell of the north tower, Ground Zero, 14 September 2001

Journalist 1st Class Preston Keres · Public domain · Source

Fires fed by jet fuel burned at close to 1,000 °C and weakened the steel frames. The south tower fell at 9:59 a.m., 56 minutes after it was struck, and the north tower at 10:28, after 102 minutes, the upper floors crushing those below. That afternoon the 47-storey 7 World Trade Center also collapsed.

Most of the people who worked in the towers walked down the stairs and survived. But those trapped above the impact zones died, together with 343 firefighters and 60 police officers who had climbed the stairs to rescue them. In New York 2,753 people were killed.

The site became known as “Ground Zero”. Clearing the debris and searching for remains went on for more than eight months, until May 2002.

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The map in 2001

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States and rulers at the time
United States · targeted — President George W. Bush
Places
World Trade Center

People

  • Rick Rescorla1939 – 2001

    participant · Cornish-born Vietnam War veteran and head of security at Morgan Stanley, who led some 2,700 employees out of the south tower and died after going back in for the last of them

Before and after

Earlier
2001 Closing the American Sky
Later
2001 United Airlines Flight 175

Themes that include this event

  • The September 11 Attacks1988 – 2014

    Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the four airliners hijacked on the morning of 11 September 2001 and the fall of the twin towers, the closing of the American sky, twenty years of war in Afghanistan and the death of bin Laden, and the memorial pools in the towers’ footprints