The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center elicited a large response of local emergency and rescue personnel to assist in the evacuation of the two towers, resulting in a large loss of the same personnel when the towers collapsed. After the attacks, the media termed the World Trade Center site "Ground Zero", while rescue personnel referred to it as "the Pile".
Communication problems and successes played an important role during the September 11 attacks in 2001 and their aftermath. Systems were variously destroyed or overwhelmed by loads greater than they were designed to carry, or failed to operate as intended or desired.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized by the United States Congress. The Port Authority oversees much of the regional transportation infrastructure, including bridges, tunnels, airports, and seaports, within the geographical jurisdiction of the Port of New York and New Jersey. This 1,500-square-mile (3,900 km2) port district is generally encompassed within a 25-mile (40 km) radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument. The Port Authority is headquartered at 4 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
The New York Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel within the original World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It opened in April 1981 as the Vista International Hotel and was the first major hotel to open in Lower Manhattan south of Canal Street since 1836. In November 1995, it was bought by Marriott Corporation and renamed to the Marriott World Trade Center. It was unofficially known as the 3 World Trade Center.
Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) is the port authority for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It owns and operates three airports, Logan International Airport, Hanscom Field, and Worcester Regional Airport, and public terminals in the Port of Boston.
John McLoughlin is a retired American police officer who is known for being one of the two Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officers that survived after being trapped under the rubble of the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks. His rescue and that of William Jimeno are later the subject of Oliver Stone's film World Trade Center in 2006, in which McLoughlin was portrayed by actor Nicolas Cage.
World Trade Center is a 2006 American docudrama disaster film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Andrea Berloff. Starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña, the film is based on the experience of a team of New York City police officers during the September 11 attacks, in which they were trapped inside the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, or Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), is a law enforcement agency in New York and New Jersey, the duties of which are to protect and to enforce state and city laws at all the facilities, owned or operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), the bi-state agency running airports, seaports, and many bridges and tunnels within the Port of New York and New Jersey. Additionally, the PAPD is responsible for other PANYNJ properties including three bus terminals, the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, and the PATH train system. The PAPD is the largest transit-related police force in the United States.
William J. Jimeno is a Colombian-American author and retired Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department officer who survived the September 11 attacks in 2001. He was buried under the rubble for a total of 13 hours, but survived, along with fellow Port Authority officer John McLoughlin. He has written two books regarding the experience.
David W. Karnes is a United States Marine who, with fellow U.S. Marine Jason Thomas, located and helped rescue two police officers of the Port Authority Police Department trapped in the rubble from the September 11 attacks after the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001.
Within seconds of the collapse of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks, building materials, electronic equipment, and furniture were pulverized and spread over the area of the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. In the five months following the attacks, dust from the pulverized buildings continued to fill the air of the World Trade Center site. Many New York residents have reported symptoms of Ground Zero respiratory illnesses.
Dominick A. Pezzulo was an Italian American Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department (PAPD) officer who died in the September 11 attacks in lower Manhattan, New York City in 2001.
The September 11 attacks were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. New York City took the brunt of the death toll when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan were attacked, with an estimated 1,600 victims from the North Tower and around a thousand from the South Tower. Two hundred miles southwest in Arlington County, Virginia, another 125 were killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities included the ninety-two passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the sixty-five aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the sixty-four on American Airlines Flight 77 and the forty-four who boarded United Airlines Flight 93. The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower alone made the September 11 attacks the deadliest act of terrorism in human history.
Trakr was a German Shepherd police dog who along with his handler, Canadian police officer James Symington, discovered the last survivor of the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001. For his accomplishments, Trakr was named one of history's most heroic animals by Time magazine. In 2008 Symington won an essay contest sponsored by BioArts International to find the world's most "cloneworthy dog," as a result of which Trakr was cloned, producing five puppies.
American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center is a book by William Langewiesche, published in 2002, about the cleanup and recovery effort at the World Trade Center site following the September 11 attacks. Langewiesche embedded with the team managing the search and removal of The Pile, originally writing a series of articles for The Atlantic that were expanded into American Ground.
Salty and Roselle were two guide dogs who were with their owners in the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks in New York City. They each guided their owners out of the burning towers before the buildings collapsed, feats which were later recognized when they were awarded the Dickin Medal by the British charity the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals. Roselle went on to be posthumously named American Hero Dog of the Year 2011 by American Humane, and has a book written about her.
The World Trade Center Health Program provides medical benefits to specific groups of individuals who were affected by the September 11 attacks in 2001 against the United States. The WTC Health Program was established by Title I of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, P.L. 111-347, which amended the Public Health Service Act. The United States Congress passed the bill in December 2010 and United States President Barack Obama signed it into law on January 2, 2011. The Zadroga Act required the WTC Health Program to begin administering medical benefits on July 1, 2011. On December 18, 2015, the Zadroga Act was reauthorized to provide medical benefits to affected individuals until 2090. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administers the program. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is component of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Leonard William Hatton Jr. was an American special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was killed in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City when he entered one of the towers to help evacuate the occupants and stayed when the towers collapsed.
Pablo Ortiz was an American construction superintendent, and former Navy SEAL. He worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the organization that managed the World Trade Center, and is credited with playing a central role in rescuing people who were trapped in the North Tower's upper floors during the September 11 attacks. Survivors describe last seeing him ascending a stairwell to go rescue more people with his friend and colleague Frank De Martini.
Vincent Gabriel “Vinney” Danz was a New York Police Department officer and a Port Security Specialist Second Class in the United States Coast Guard Reserve, who died responding to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001.
United States of America
United States Marine Corps 
United States Air Force 
Sergeant (Marine Corps)
Technical Sergeant (Air Force)