Not many, if none, of the underclassmen may remember, but most seniors this year, along with the staff, probably remember waking up on September 11, 2001 and thinking it was going to be another typical day of school or another uneventful day at work, but in fact it was the exact opposite.

Of course it was not a fun experience when you turned on the television just out of sheer routine or because of friends or family calling you to turn to the news channel.

That day as you may or may not remember the Twin Towers in New York City were hit at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time, by two Boeing 767 planes going at a speed of just under 500 mph full of innocent passengers along with over a dozen al Qaeda terrorists and pilots.

Though just Trade Centers one and two were hit (the Twin Towers), debris falling off of the buildings caused most of the lower rise buildings to catch fire and Trade Center 7 to fall.

The total number of deaths was approximately 3,000 (including the terrorists), and another 6,000 injured.

One could start reading now for the rest of a lifetime trying to uncover all of the secrets behind America’s biggest terrorist attacks, but you will never get a straight answer telling you why that event happened on that certain day, and why the U.S. government hadn’t known what to do to have prevented something like that.

Odd ideas

Many people have probably noticed by now that a lot of little innuendos have been popping up about 9/11, because September 11 happens to be the emergency number to contact the authorities – 911. Also, the number of the first plane to hit one of the towers happened to be 11.

Simply going online one could find many mysteries that go along with the event.

Some people even go to the extremes that the attack never took place and that the whole thing is just a conspiracy or hoax that the government came up with to divert the people, or the simple and most frequent used motive, money.

Many 9-11 conspiracy theories surfaced shortly after the September 11 attacks, some bringing compelling arguments, and some not holding up at all.

For example, some theorists believe that the World Trade Center buildings were demolished by bombs, and that the phone calls from the planes were made up.

An interesting idea to figure out is to search a video of the crashes, or simply just photos, and study the smoke. Looking real close, it seems as though there are strange faces rising out.

Other conspiracy theories suggest people who were suspicious, or somehow accidentally received information of the attack being set up, like Deborah Palfrey and Danny Casolaro were about to release information, but suddenly “committed suicide.”

Also known as a D.C. madam because of her relations with government officials, Palfrey had come in the grasp of information. She was being sued for racketeering and intended to use the 9/11 information she acquired from the state officials to aid her case. Of course she was never able to deliver the information because of her sudden death.

Danny Casolaro on the other hand was writing a book that would reveal many things about the government, including information on the trade centers. Casolaro even warned his family that someone might try to murder him because of what as coming out in his book.

Someone could only imagine what the family thought when they found out that their son had committed suicide, but also have the thought that it was set up.

Back home…

Three hours later on attack day, in Washington, we were trying to catch up with what was happening in New York. In the high school, as some staff members may remember, the principal then, Mark Baier, was just informing the staff to turn the televisions on to keep up with the news when the power simultaneously went out throughout the entire school. One can imagine the reaction with all of the events going on in New York that the students started to panic.

It turns out that it was simply just a squirrel that had chewed on one of master electricity cables at a local power substation.

The fact of the matter is that something that happened miles away can still affect people far away and make them feel as if they are in danger too.

A fresh start

After all of the events died down in New York and emotional and physical wounds were finally healing, architects and construction groups were planning new buildings to replace the World Trade Centers.

A large group of talented and well known architects and artists came together and eventually came up with the “Freedom Tower.” They released the photo of the  new buildings in 2005.

The Freedom Tower will be the one that’s most visible and will be 1,776 feet high.

Many New Yorkers dislike the fact that there will only be one tower. Many want a second one to be 2,001 feet tall to signify when the original towers were destroyed.

Some even believe that the site should not be built over. This is because that bodies and body parts are being found constantly while they work there.

Trade Centers 1, 2 ,3, 4, and 5 are all being rebuilt. They will all be made of entirely steel, glass and concrete.

To go with all of the new Trade Centers, in memoriam of the people who died and the towers that fell, they are building a national museum in honor of everyone who died or gave of themselves to help out on the fatal day.

The new buildings will not cover the position of the original towers, but instead built around where the outline can still be visited and overlooked by the passersby.

There was also a big controversy going on because there might have been a mosque built near ground zero. Of course, because there were so many people against it, it was decided that the mosque would be built in lower Manhattan, in a place that was called Park51.

Behind the project

“Most New Yorkers know Larry Silverstein as the leaseholder on the World Trade Center. What they may not know is that he signed that lease in July 2001, just eight weeks before it was destroyed,” says a Silverstein Properties statement.