The Day of Terror The day the unthinkable struck at America's heart It was the terrorism nightmare that not even Hollywood allowed itself to conjure but which the world watched like a disaster movie on television. Here FT correspondents recount the tale. |  Read Recalling the tale in New York A bright sun and cloudless sky. It was the perfect New York autumn morning. But as people made their way to work, only blocks away from the twin towers of the World Trade Center, they heard a plane pass overhead. It sounded too close. |  Read Shadow of modern war enshrouds New York The ultimate impact of the World Trade Center attack on New York City - its people, finances and psyche - was incalculable in the hours following the terrorist strike. |  Read 'Welcome to insanity' as Washington reels They had scrambled to the top-floor office of the US Treasury, overlooking the White House, to hear the latest reports about the attacks in New York when someone pointed out of the window. |  Read Eyewitness: 'I saw them jump from the 80th floor' "It was unreal. Spectacular. Like a movie," said a witness of the attacks on the World Trade Center. "Then, very scary." Across America, disbelief gave way to fear. |  Read New York buildings emptied after blasts New York's financial institutions sent most people home after lunch and started to implement their disaster recovery plans. |  Read New York and DC hospitals in chaos after attacks Hospitals in New York City and Washington DC were in chaos after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. |  Read Downtown panic throws New York into a fitful sleep New York City turned into a strange netherworld, with few taxis and cars on the streets, restaurants closed, and police adorned in pea-green bullet-proof vests directing thousands of onlookers. |  Read Icons of capitalism fall at hand of foes The twin 110-floor towers of New York's World Trade Center loomed over New York's financial district as icons of the power of American capitalism. |  Read New Yorkers tell their stories Eyewitness accounts |  Read The day's events Minute-by-minute chronology as the world's biggest terror attack unfolds. |  Read Lower Manhattan map Map of lower Manhattan showing destroyed and damaged buildings. |  Read