The world's fifth and sixth tallest buildings were crushed into 1.8 million tons of smoking concrete and steel, a tomb for nearly 3,000 people. Now the job was recovery, and with each truckload the true toll became clearer

Posted Sunday, September 1, 2002; 3:38 p.m. EST
6 years, 8 months
Time it took to build the World Trade Center, from 1966 to 1973

1 hour, 42 minutes
Time it took to destroy the towers, from the first impact to the second collapse

180 m.p.h.
Speed at which a Boeing 707 could hit the towers but still not destroy them, under the official engineering plan

470 m.p.h., 590 m.p.h.
Estimated flight speeds of the two Boeing 767 jets that hit the towers

0.9
Magnitude of the earthquake-like tremor caused by the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 hitting the north tower

1800°F
Estimated temperature of the fires ignited by the jet fuel

1022°F
Temperature at which steel loses half its strength; it melts at about 2500°F

2.3
Magnitude of the tremor caused by the collapse of the north tower, measured from 21 miles away

60
Police officers killed; 37 Port Authority, 23 N.Y.P.D.

343
New York City fire fighters killed; 60 were off duty

658
Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed

10
Bystanders killed by falling debris

19,858
Body parts recovered from the site; 4,598 have been identified

379,036
Ounces of gold recovered from the Bank of Nova Scotia vault (current value: $118.5 million)

3
Auguste Rodin sculptures recovered from the rubble

144
Rings, among the 65,000 personal items recovered from ground zero. Other items include 437 watches, 77 necklaces, 119 earrings and 80 bracelets

4
Autographed baseballs found

16
People who escaped the south tower from above the floors where the plane hit

0
People who escaped the north tower from above the floors where the plane hit

18
Survivors found in the rubble: 12 fire fighters, three police officers, three civilians. All were found by Sept. 12

92
Bomb threats phoned in to police in New York City on Sept. 11

6
Looting arrests in New York City on Sept. 11; by Oct. 11, 54 more had been made

$4 billion to $6 billion
Expected total payout of government compensation to victims' families

$2,235,997
Government estimate of the value—before subtracting insurance, pensions or other benefits—of a 25-year-old man with one child, making $50,000 a year at the time of his death

$1.36 million
Average payment to first 25 families who applied

116,000
American flags sold by Wal-Mart on Sept. 11, 2001

6,400
American flags sold by Wal-Mart on Sept. 11, 2000

76%
New York City public-school students who reported that six months later, they still frequently thought about the Sept. 11 attacks

3.6 million
Estimated number of tourists who will have visited ground zero by the end of this year

Sources: FEMA, N.Y.P.D., F.D.N.Y., Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, McKinsey & Co., Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Justice Department, FBI, New York Times, USA Today, Atlantic Monthly