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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Terrorists strike New York, D.C.

(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON Posted 4:35 p.m. Sept. 11 In an unparalleled assault, terrorists struck targets in New York and Washington today, causing widespread damage and panic as explosions leveled New York’s World Trade Center towers and part of the Pentagon, near Washington D.C.

Casualty figures have yet to be counted but numbers are expected to be disastrous, as approximately 50,000 people on average work at the twin towers every day and thousands of personal are employed at the Pentagon.

Two explosions rocked the 110-story twin towers today starting at 8:45 a.m. EST when what is believed to be a hijacked American Airlines flight 11 from Boston en route to Los Angeles crashed into the south tower. As smoke funneled from the first building, a second plane, reported to be United Airlines flight 175 headed from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the north tower at approximately 9:03 a.m., setting it ablaze.

After burning for about an hour, the south tower collapsed at 10:05 a.m. followed by the north tower 30 minutes later, bringing down 200,000 tons of steel and 43,600 windows.

As New York scrambled to help the injured and secure the city, a third plane crashed into the home of the Department of Defense at the Pentagon at 9:45 a.m., causing part of the structure to collapse.

American Airlines flight 77 en route to Los Angeles from Washington Dulles airport is believed to be the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

A fourth plane, United flight 93 headed to San Francisco after taking off from Newark, N.J. crashed near Pittsburgh in Somerset, Pa.

United and American Airlines both confirmed that each carrier fell victim to two hijackings. The Federal Aviation Administration halted all commercial aviation traffic for the first time in history at 9:40 a.m. and initially directed all transatlantic inbound international traffic to Canada.

National parks and federal buildings including the Capitol, all congressional office buildings and the White House west wing were evacuated following the Pentagon bombing. Subsequent reports of explosions at the State Department and the Capitol were found to be false.

Classes were cancelled at universities in the District of Columbia as people evacuated the city causing traffic to be at a standstill at around 11 a.m. By 2 p.m, Washington streets were silent as federal officials cordoned off the area surrounding the Capitol and White House and most business and office has closed for the day. All roads and bridges leading to New York and Washington were closed. Ground phone lines and cell phone communiations were jammed for two hours following the attacks in the D.C. area.

New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Washington mayor Anthony Williams each declared a state of emergency in their respective cities as officials prepared for any further attacks.

Nationally, major buildings and schools all over the country were evacuated. In New York, police evacuated the United Nations and other sites across the country including Disney parks in California and Florida, the Sears tower in Chicago and the St. Louis Arch were closed.

President Bush, who was on a trip to Florida was initially flown to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana before quickly flying to an undisclosed location. There he asked for prayers and condemned the attacks in a nationally televised speech announcing, “Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.”

Helen Thomas, former UPI corespondent and a Washington journalistic institution since World War II said, “It’s Pearl Harbor. I have never seen anything that compares to this surprise attack in all my years (in Washington).”

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