By Mike Hutchens, UC Communications Director
NEW YORK, NY – It was a history lesson that won’t be soon forgotten.
Members of the Union City High School football team, cheerleaders, coaches and administration visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center Thursday, learning in-depth details of the worst terrorist attack ever on United States soil.
The Union City travel party made the 125-mile trip to the Big Apple from Penns Grove, New Jersey, to tour the 9/11 Memorial and Times Square as part of the New York “experience.”
The UC school group is in the area to play a football game tonight against PG, but will first take a mini-tour of Philadelphia this morning.
The group respectfully made its way around the 9/11 museum Thursday with the aid of a tour guide from the city, observing many artifacts, listening to audios and watching videos at the impressive site.
Nearly 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, and Feb. 26, 1993, most innocent victims and others who risked their lives to save the lives of others. Of those fatalities in the 9/11 attacks, 343 were firefighters.
Among the victims was the wife of UCHS graduate Roge Escarcega, the son of Joanne Escarcega and the late Dr. Rogelio Escarcega.
Ten buildings were destroyed in the attack, including seven in the World Trade Center, and more than 20,000 buildings had to be cleaned of the debris that littered the air and ground when two planes directed by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda rammed the Twin Towers.
People from 50 countries in all were among those who were killed.
The Sept. 11 attacks were a series of four by al-Qaeda against the United States. In addition to the fatalities, they injured another 6,000 people and caused at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.
Four passenger airplanes — all of which departed from airports in the northeastern part of the United States and bound for California – were hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists.
Two of the planes crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center and both 110-story towers collapsed in less than an hour.
Debris and the resulting fires caused a partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex.
A third plane crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth was headed for Washington, D.C., but crashed in a field in Stonycreek Township in Shanksville, Pa., after its passengers thwarted the hijackers.
Cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, and the Pentagon was repaired within a year. On Nov. 18, 2006, construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site.
The building was officially opened on Nov. 3, 2014.
Other memorials have been constructed, including the Pentagon in Arlington County, Va., and the Flight 93 National Memorial in a field in Stonycreek Township.
Photo by Mike Hutchens
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