RUSHING INTO HELL: Once the towers fell, thousands of volunteers came to assist in rescue efforts and to clear the rubble.
WHEN PLACIDO PEREZ closes his eyes, he can still see the World Trade Center towers beneath him. On weekends, he would sometimes fly his red-andwhite Cessna along the Hudson River, taking selfies with the towers in the background, stark against a cerulean sky. “I still look at the pictures all the time,” he says. “I remember the good times. It’s what gets you through.”
STILL COUNTING: Only the Battle of Antietam accounted for more American deaths in one day, but the death toll continues to climb as rescue workers get older, and sicker.
FROM LEFT: BETH A. KEISER/AFP/GETTY; DEVIN YALKIN FOR NEWSWEEK; PREVIOUS SPREAD: LYNN JOHNSON/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC/GETTY