Steel and Stone: Army Corps of Engineers Reflects on 9/11 25 Years Later

The Army and the Army Corps of Engineers mobilized with speed and purpose to support recovery efforts at the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center in New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, the National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, opened "Steel and Stone: Engineering the Response to 9/11." The new exhibit, also available online, includes oral histories and artifacts that historians collected after the attacks. It chronicles what the Army and the Corps of Engineers did in the minutes, days and months following the tragedy to help the nation rebuild.

"Our motto is: 'Devising engineering solutions for the nation's toughest challenges,'" said John Lonnquest, chief historian for the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The government can do hard things. The Corps of Engineers and the Army can do hard things. And together, the Army and the nation and its populace got through that really tough day, and we're stronger and certainly wiser for it," he said.