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Attack On America
Connected: Stories from Gryphon
Survivors
On the day the hijacked planes of America crashed
into the twin towers of trade and Washington’s Pentagon, the
emotions of teachers at RMSH crashed with them. Though
many were upset over these tragedies, two were brought to a
higher level of distress—Mrs. Hammill and Mrs. Wall. Mrs.
Hammill, a provider of our computer education, was
devastated to learn of these attacks, knowing her son is
involved in the National Guard. Even though her son was
located in Germany during the attacks, she worried that his
base may have been a target. When contact with her son was
finally made, all was well, but new worries of combat entered
Mrs. Hammill’s mind. Hammill says her son’s unit has not been
deployed, but could be any day depending on government
decision. She feels her son may not fight if war calls, because
of the large usage of battle-experienced troops. “As a worried
mother,” says Mrs. Hammill, “you never know what may
happen, and the concern for my son is indescribable.” As the
devastation passed through the halls and met room 215 of
Mrs. Wall, anxiety began to fill her mind. Mrs. Wall, one of
our strongest mathematics teachers, became heartbroken to
discover the Pentagon, which neighbored her mother and
father-in-law, had been attacked. When she learned of these
attacks. Wall says she frantically contacted her husband, and
breathed a sigh of relief to find that her relatives were safe.
Mrs. Wall says her husband was on the phone with her
mother-in-law when the plane rammed into the Pentagon. Her
mother-in-law described the area around the Pentagon as a
traffic field war zone, with confusion everywhere. These
terrible attacks committed seemed to cause a large separation
of emotion in student body and staff.
World Trade Center Facts
-WTC consists of two 110-story office towers.
-Arcitect Minoru Yamasaki desingend the
outside of the building as a steelwork mesh that
suported most of the weight of the towers.
-The WTC was the tallest skyscrapers in New
York City.
-3,500 workers worked on the building on any
given day
-The WTC had the largest refrigeration plant in
the world weighing 60,000 tons.
-Febuary 26, 1993, a terrorist bomb exploded
in the underground parking level of Tower One
leaving a 200 foot wide and five story deep
crator
-One tower was just 6 feet taller than the other.
-It was possible to see out for 45 miles from the
observation desks.
-A total of 50,000 people worked in the World
Trade Center. More than 150,000 business and
leisure visitors came to the complex daily.
-The WTC had approximately 42,600 windows
and more than 200,000 tons of steel.
Pentagon Facts
-It is one of the largest office buildings in the
world
-It stands across from the Potomic River
dividing Washington, D.C.
-It headquarters of the Department of Defense.
-Loctated in Arlington, VA, the Pentagon is
directly across from Washington, D.C.
-The building is 5 stories tall, covers 29 acres,
and has about 3,705,000 square feet of office
space.
-Nearly 23,000 people work in the Pentagon.
-Some of the offices located in the
Pentagon:Army, Navy, Air Force, Office of the
Secritary of Defence, etc.
-The building began to take shape in September
of 1941, and was completed in January 1943.
-The construction rationed the use of steel since
it was built during the middle of World War II.
-When it was planned, the idea of having all the
military offices in one building was rejected by
most, but was then approved by President
Franklin Roosevelt.