The national flag of the United States, often referred to as the American flag or the U.S. flag, consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton, referred to as the union and bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars alternate with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states, and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain, which they went on to secure by their victory in the American Revolutionary War.
The first memorials to the victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001 began to take shape online, as hundreds of webmasters posted their own thoughts, links to the Red Cross and other rescue agencies, photos, and eyewitness accounts. Numerous online September 11 memorials began appearing a few hours after the attacks, although many of these memorials were only temporary. Around the world, U.S. embassies and consulates became makeshift memorials as people came out to pay their respects.
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".
The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north, the West Side Highway to the west, Liberty Street to the south, and Church Street to the east. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) owns the site's land. The original World Trade Center complex stood on the site until it was destroyed in the September 11 attacks.
Joseph John Rosenthal was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. His picture became one of the best-known photographs of the war, and was replicated as the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is a memorial and museum that are part of the World Trade Center complex, in New York City, created for remembering the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. It is operated by a non-profit institution whose mission is to raise funds to program and operate the memorial and museum at the World Trade Center site.
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima is an iconic photograph of six United States Marines raising the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War. The photograph, taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press on February 23, 1945, was published in Sunday newspapers two days later and reprinted in thousands of publications. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and was the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial in 1954, dedicated to honor all Marines who died in service since 1775. The memorial, sculpted by Felix de Weldon, is located in Arlington Ridge Park, near the Ord-Weitzel Gate to Arlington National Cemetery and the Netherlands Carillon. The photograph has come to be regarded in the United States as one of the most recognizable images of World War II.
René Arthur Gagnon was a United States Marine Corps corporal who participated in the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II.
The Marriott World Trade Center was a 22-story, 825-room hotel within the 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. It was also unofficially known as World Trade Center 3, and the World Trade Center Hotel, officially the Vista Hotel, and the Marriott Hotel throughout its history.
John Henry "Jack" "Doc" Bradley was a United States Navy Hospital corpsman who was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. During the battle, he was a member of the patrol that captured the top of Mount Suribachi and raised the first U.S. flag on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.
6 World Trade Center was an eight-story building in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It opened in 1974 and was the building in the World Trade Center complex that had the fewest stories. The building served as the U.S. Customs House for New York. It was destroyed in 2001 due to the collapse of the North Tower during the September 11 attacks. Its site is now the location of the new One World Trade Center and the Perelman Performing Arts Center.
The Sphere is a monumental cast bronze sculpture by German artist Fritz Koenig (1924–2017).
The Record is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey, it has the second-largest circulation of the state's daily newspapers, behind The Star-Ledger.
Thomas E. Franklin is an American photographer for The Bergen Record, best known for his photograph Raising the Flag at Ground Zero, which depicts firefighters raising the American flag at the World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks.
Lunch atop a Skyscraper is a black-and-white photograph taken on September 20, 1932, of eleven ironworkers sitting on a steel beam 850 feet above the ground during construction of the RCA Building in Manhattan, New York City. It was arranged as a publicity stunt, part of a campaign promoting the skyscraper. The photograph was first published in October 1932 during the construction of Rockefeller Center. In 2016 it was acquired by the Visual China Group.
Raising a Flag over the Reichstag is an iconic World War II photograph, taken during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945. It depicts a Soviet soldier raising the flag of the Soviet Union over the Reichstag building. The photograph was reprinted in thousands of publications and came to be regarded around the world as one of the most significant and recognizable images of World War II. Owing to the secrecy of Soviet media, the identities of the men in the picture were often disputed, as was that of the photographer, Yevgeny Khaldei. It became a symbol of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
Robert Beckwith was an American firefighter. As a member of the New York City Fire Department, he became well known to the American public after he stood next to President George W. Bush as Bush gave a speech at the ruins of the World Trade Center after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
As of 2011, The Great Picture holds the Guinness World Record for the largest print photograph, and the camera with which it was made holds a record for being the world's largest. The photograph was taken in 2006 as part of the Legacy Project, a photographic compilation and record of the history of Marine Corps Air Station El Toro as it is being transformed into the Orange County Great Park. The project used the abandoned F-18 hangar #115 at the closed fighter base in Irvine, California, United States, as the world's largest pinhole camera. The aim was to make a black-and-white negative print of the Marine Corps air station with its control tower and runways, with the San Joaquin Hills in the background. The photograph was unveiled on July 12, 2006, during a reception held in the hangar and was exhibited for the first time at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, on September 6, 2007.
Lori Grinker is an American documentary art photographer and filmmaker from New York City. She is best known for her self-directed, long-term documentary projects, and has conducted these projects through photography, video and multimedia. Grinker has had two books of her work published and been exhibited internationally.
Liberty Park is a one-acre (0.40 ha) elevated public park at the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, overlooking the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan. The park, which opened on June 29, 2016, is located above the World Trade Center's Vehicular Security Center. The St. Nicholas National Shrine is located within the park, as well as Fritz Koenig's The Sphere, the iconic sculpture salvaged from the World Trade Center site. Another statue, America's Response Monument, is also located in the park.
