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.
Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) is an American port authority in 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 one of two Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officers who 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. 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 film was shot between October 2005 and February 2006, and theatrically released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on August 9, 2006. It was met with generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $163 million worldwide.
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.
In American law enforcement, the Emergency Service Unit, or ESU, is a multi-faceted element within a law enforcement agency’s Special Operations Command.
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. Increasing numbers of New York residents are reporting 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 of 2001 caused 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 single-handedly made 9/11 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 they 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).
The original World Trade Center (WTC) was a large complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed during the September 11 attacks in 2001. At the time of their completion, the Twin Towers—the original 1 World Trade Center at 1,368 feet (417 m), and 2 World Trade Center at 1,362 feet (415.1 m)—were the tallest buildings in the world. Other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center, 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. The complex contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space and, prior to its completion, was projected to accommodate an estimated 130,000 people.
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.
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)