It started as a crisp and clear September morning. Everything was going as usual. New Yorkers were walking to work, grabbing coffee, running late to the office, and about to start their day. Then, at 8:46 a.m., everything changed.
When American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Smashed, the echo of that collision could be heard across several miles. And that was not all. About seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, a second plane, crashed into the South Tower.
The fall of the Twin Towers was not just a physical collapse. It was a collapse of security. It was a failure of assumptions and of the illusion that America was untouchable.
Constructed in the early 1970s, the Twin Towers were symbols of economic might. They were the precision of modern engineering. At 110 stories each, they stood proudly in the heart of Manhattan. They were true modern marvels because of their inventive design and tube structure, which had a lightweight core and an outer steel skeleton.
When the planes hit, they did so with devastating speed, traveling over 400 mph. The jet fuel ignited massive fires that weakened the steel supports. Floors began to sag, connections failed, and the upper sections of both towers collapsed onto the floors below in a pancake-like sequence. The South Tower, hit second, fell first—just 56 minutes after impact. The North Tower followed at 10:28 a.m.
In total, 2,753 lives were lost. The collapse took with it first responders, office workers, tourists, and innocent bystanders. The physical destruction was immense, but the psychological trauma was even greater. The dust cloud that swept through Lower Manhattan carried with it debris, asbestos, and haunting memories.
Many questions were raised in the aftermath. Why did the towers fall so quickly? Were the fireproofing materials inadequate? Was the building’s design too reliant on central supports? The 9/11 Commission and engineering analyses eventually concluded that the impact and subsequent fires caused a catastrophic structural failure.
But skeptics remain, some suggesting that controlled demolition or internal explosives may have played a role.
Beyond the physics, there’s another layer to the fall: the intelligence failure. Signs were missed. Warnings were ignored. Hijackers moved freely, took flying lessons, and entered the U.S. with little resistance. But how?
Today, the space where the towers once stood is a place of mourning and remembrance. The 9/11 Memorial honors the victims. The Freedom Tower stands in defiance, reaching higher than before.
But the questions remain: Are they still safe?
To understand what really happened on that day and to know the complex layers that could change the trajectory of this incident, you should be reading “Parallax 9/11: Part 1: The Silent Assassin. Through analysis, perspective, and untold details, this documented drama reexamines the fall of the Twin Towers through a new lens. This novel will reveal a deeper secret that will keep us intrigued throughout, not just reliving the event but also reevaluating it by shedding light on a shocking detail.
Here is a link to purchase: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1917438567/.