9/11 Memorial

On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda carried out four coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Nineteen hijackers seized four passenger airliners and turned them into suicide weapons. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and within two hours both towers collapsed, with debris and fires causing partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the complex and significant damage to ten surrounding structures. American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon, causing a partial collapse on its western side. United Airlines Flight 93, intended for Washington, D.C., crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers tried to overcome the hijackers. Almost 3,000 people were killed, including 227 civilians and 19 hijackers aboard the four planes. The attacks caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage and were the deadliest incident in United States history for firefighters and law enforcement officers, with 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers killed. A memorial later built by the King of Prussia Volunteer Fire Company was designed to honor those whose lives were taken, recognize the courage of first responders and survivors, and express the American spirit through a site whose layout, scale, and features symbolically represent the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, Flight 93, and the losses of September 11.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania · United States