This article commemorates the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, by focusing on its long-term impacts and personal recollections from that day. It features insights from various experts and firsthand accounts, including Dr. Kristina Jones, a psychiatrist who worked at St. Vincent’s Hospital near Ground Zero, and other individuals affected directly or indirectly by the attacks. The piece explores how 9/11 altered global dynamics and discusses efforts to prevent future terrorist incidents in the United States.
Written by the local model on 2026-09-12,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
It’s Friday, September 11.
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Today, we’re bringing you a different Front Page.
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we → bring → Page
It’s dedicated to one thing: the attack on America 25 years ago, what it meant then, and what it means now.
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it → dedicate → what
September 11 was an epochal break, the violent punctuation mark with which one era ended and another began.
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another → end → which
We have stories on how it changed the world, the war on terror that followed, its contested legacy today, and more.
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that → have → terror
We have the insights of our columnists, like Niall Ferguson and Douglas Murray, as well as the perspectives of those who served on the front lines in the War on Terror, like David Petraeus and H.R. McMaster.
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who → have → Petraeus
But 9/11 was, first and foremost, an atrocity in which wicked men murdered thousands of Americans.
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men → murder → Americans
And so we begin with the day itself.
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we → begin → day
On September 11, 2001, Kristina Jones was three months into her job as an attending psychiatrist at St. Vincent’s, the closest hospital to the World Trade Center.
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Jones → attend → Center
She worked 13 hours that harrowing day.
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The next day she wrote for seven hours, trying to record what she had seen before it evaporated from her mind.
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it → write → mind
Then she put away her recollections, confiding in only a few close friends about them, because her experiences felt small compared with people who had lost lives, family members, or friends.
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who → put → lives
Twenty-five years later, Dr. Jones decided that she wanted to share what she wrote about St. Vincent’s.
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she → decide → Vincent
Her words are a time capsule of September 11, and a remembrance of those whose lives were lost.
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lives → lose → those
Dr. Jones was one of millions of Americans caught up in the attacks.
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Jones → catch → attacks
We gathered 10 first-person testimonies from the day the Twin Towers fell and the Pentagon was hit, including a photojournalist who ran toward the World Trade Center when almost everyone else was running away, and got the shot that changed her life; a woman who was a toddler in the Pentagon day care when the plane hit and is now a U.S. Air Force captain; a firefighter who came from Maryland to help with the search and rescue; and memories from The Free Press’s Joe Nocera and Will Rahn, who were in New York City that day.
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who → gather → City
The morning after the towers fell, Nicholas Clairmont recalls, his mother bought an issue of all four major New York City newspapers—and saved them.
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mother → fall → them
Two decades later, Nick read them for the first time, and now he reads them again every September 11.
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he → read → them
What do they tell us about the day the world changed?
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world → tell → day
Frank Siller was waiting for his firefighter brother, Stephen, to show up for golf on September 11, 2001.
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brother → wait → September
He never did.
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Frank sits down with Coleman Hughes to discuss how he channeled his unimaginable grief into a cause that has changed thousands of lives.
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that → sit → lives
Twenty-five years ago, Americans watching monuments to the country’s security and prosperity wondered: Where will the next attacks occur?
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attacks → watch → security
Answering that question has been the job of the U.S.’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies ever since.
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Answering → answer → agencies
And the country has succeeded in preventing another major jihadist attack after September 11, write William Barr and Michael Mukasey, two former U.S. attorneys general.
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Barr → succeed → September
But, they warn, 25 years later, we’re starting to forget the vital importance of a post-9/11 surveillance law to “detecting and disrupting a new generation of terror plots.”
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we → warn → plots
In response to the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush launched the War on Terror and the era-defining invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Bush → launch → Afghanistan
In our pages today, General David Petraeus recalls a pivotal moment in that war: the surge.
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Petraeus → recall → war
Read his inside story of how Bush navigated one of the most consequential moments of the post-9/11 era—and why he views Bush choosing to double down in Iraq as “one of the most courageous presidential decisions of the 21st century.”
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Bush → read → century
Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster was on the phone with the Pentagon when the building was struck on September 11.
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building → strike → September
He joins Aaron MacLean to discuss the wars that followed, including the rise of ISIS, and why McMaster thinks the latest Iran ceasefire was “a big mistake.”
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ceasefire → join → ISIS
Twenty-five years ago, Niall Ferguson was one of the people predicting the decline of American power.
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Ferguson → predict → power
He looks back on those forecasts and admits: I was wrong.
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I → look → forecasts
Today, not just the legacy of 9/11 but the basic facts of what happened on that day are contested in a way that would have been unimaginable to an America that unified immediately after the attack.
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that → happen → attack
Revisit Douglas Murray’s recent essay on why the lies about that day must be resisted.
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lies → revisit → day
