25 haunting images that show what 9/11 was really like as the attacks unfolded

The trauma of 9/11 still lingers 25 years on from the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., that left nearly 3,000 people dead. Images of the day’s terrible events, taken as they unfolded — as first one, and then a second, hijacked passenger airliner were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, before a third struck the Pentagon and a fourth crash-landed in a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought the hijackers for control of the cockpit —provide a devastating record of what transpired on a quiet early autumn day a quarter-century ago. Many of those pictures illustrate the human cost of what proved to be one of the most lethal terrorist plots in history — the fear on the faces of those fleeing for their lives, the exhaustion of the rescue workers battling to save everyone they could and the despair of those searching frantically for loved ones still missing among the rubble.

Later, people found hope in other photographs — of crowds gathered for vigils, debris of being cleared and of citizens attempting to rebuild both their own lives and the city around them. These images, viewed by millions around the globe in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, helped us to understand that the date had been one on which the course of history changed forever, not just for Americans, but for the entire world. When the hijacked passenger planes struck the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, those inside the buildings were forced to hang on for dear life, creating some of the most lasting and harrowing spectacles of the day.

In all, 2,016 people who worked in the two buildings were killed. In the image above, similarly shot by several photographers, office workers are visible trapped in the uppermost floors of the North Tower, the first struck — by American Airlines Flight 11 — hanging out of windows because of the intense smoke and heat. The jet smashed into floors 93 to 99, effectively trapping any survivors of the impact at 8:46 am until the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 am.

George W Bush, a president less than nine months into the job, was famously reading a storybook to a class of elementary school students in Sarasota, Florida, when he was briefed about the attack by his chief of staff, Andrew Card. I didn’t want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm,” he later recalled in a National Geographic documentary.

The World Trade Center’s North Tower was hit first, followed by a second plane striking its South Tower at 9:03 am, 17 minutes later. As soon as the second tower was hit, there could be no doubt that America was under attack and the first impact had not been a tragic aviation accident. Passersby were forced to flee the scene in panic as debris from the attack collapsed onto the street below.

The collisions caused the two towers to catch fire, the all-devouring flames feeding off the planes’ jet fuel and eating into the skyscraper’s raw materials, fatally weakening its infrastructure. After approximately an hour of burning, the buildings began to collapse, raining down glass and steel onto downtown Manhattan. Most of the footage captured of the planes colliding into the Big Apple landmark were of the second plane.