1 World Trade Center, North Tower

The "Twin Towers" of the World Trade Center. The North Tower is on the left, the South Tower on the right.

1 World Trade Center North Tower (with the antenna), not long after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11.

Struck at 8:46 a.m., it took almost two hours, or 102 minutes, for the North Tower to burn and then collapse. The impact zone was between floors 93 and 99. One of the most memorable shots from 9/11, is the famous 'Waving Woman of the World Trade Center.'

As for the 'Waving Woman's' identity, people have suggested that she may have been Edna Cintron:

Edna Cintron was a 46-year-old  administrative assistant for Marsh & McLennan brokerage firm.

Another of the famous 9/11 shots of the North Tower shows people- most likely employees from the investment banking/financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, who lost 658 people- leaning out the windows of the building, trying desperately to get air.

It's impossible to imagine being surrounded by smoke filtering into the offices above the impact zone, and the only way to get even a breath of fresh air, is to press against the windows of the office, eventually becoming stacked like sardines in the windows. Now imagine doing that in the windows of the 106th or 110th floor...

"You're able to see more and more people assembling at the windows as time is passing, not only assembled but they're stacked up against each other. Imagine leaning out of the hundredth and ninth floor of the World Trade Center, no rational person would do that."
    - Eric Lipton, New York Times reporter

The first official victim of the September 11th attacks, was Father Mychal Judge, chaplain of the New York City Fire Department. While giving last rites to another victim, Father Judge was killed by falling debris, and later carried out by firefighters of the department he was chaplain of.

                    Father Mychal Judge             
       (May 11, 1933 - September 11, 2001)
         Photograph by Shannon Stapleton.

As the tower became engulfed in flame and smoke, people on the floors above the impact zone- 91 to 110- began moving to the windows. It's not impossible to imagine what the choices were to the ones trapped on the floors above the impact zone: suffocate and burn up, or jump. It's no surprise that those that chose to jump- "jumpers" as firefighters working that day catagorized them- in a most likely desperate, final attempt to take back some control of their lives, and choose how they would die.

One of the most haunting images of "jumpers" is perhaps that of the 'Falling Man' by photographer Richard Drew:

The man appears symmetrical; he divides the towers, the North on the left, the South on the right. He appears so calm, so accepting of his fate, that it's scary.

"I just remember looking up, thinking, how bad is it up there that the better option is to jump?”
-   Joe Casaliggi, NYFD, Engine 7, 9/11 documentary

Those that jumped fell in 10 seconds, and hit the ground at 150 miles an hour- a fall that doesn't cause instant unconsiousness, but does kill quickly and instantly on impact with the pavement or whatever they landed on. The majority were from Cantor Fitzgerald (floors 101 to 105), Marsh & McLennon (93 to 100) and the Windows of the World restaurant (floors 106 and 107).

Everyone from the 90th floor up to 110th floor perished when the North Tower collapsed- either by jumping or suffocating or being crushed as the towers fell.

The collapse of the North Tower at 10:28 a.m. 1 World Trade Center was the second to fall, despite being the first hit. After 102 minutes, the tower fell, taking hundreds of lives with it.

It's a sight we- as a nation, a world, a generation- will never forget.