Poll: How Best to Commemorate Sept. 11 Attacks?

On a beautiful late summer day, exactly 11 years ago Tuesday, three hijacked airliners were deliberately crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. A fourth hijacked airliner crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back, forcing the hijackers to down the pane far from its intended target, which also appeared to be in the nation's capital.

One of the hijacked planes had taken off from what was then known as Newark International Airport, its name expanded to the current "Newark Liberty International Airport" in commemoration of those who died.

Nearly 3,000 lost thir lives, including 343 New York City firefighters and thousands of people working in the towers.

The attacks, indirectly, have claimed tens of thousands of additional lives in the decade since: in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States launched two wars. The Iraq conflict ended late last year, while major combat operations are slated to conclude in 2014 in Afghanistan, which, at 11 years, is already America's longest conflict.

Communities across America now hold ceremonies in commemoration of the attacks (Newark's ceremony is slated for Tuesday afternoon). Memorials, including monuments containing fragments from the towers, have been or are being built from coast to coast.