TERROR: It was 18 years ago that the nation stood still.

“Day of Terror” read the headline on the front of the Era for Sept. 12, 2001. “Airborne terrorists strike U.S.”

The World Trade Center. The Pentagon. A crashed plane in Shanksville.

The American way of life changed that day. The Department of Homeland Security; the Patriot Act; the Transportation Security Administration.

It was unthinkable that such an attack could happen on American soil.

The National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York City “serves as the country’s principal institution concerned with exploring the implications of the events of 9/11, documenting the impact of those events and exploring 9/11’s continuing significance,” reads a description on the website for the museum.

The core exhibits at the museum has three parts, exploring the day of 9/11, before 9/11 and after 9/11.

The memorial exhibition commemorates the lives of those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, and on Feb. 26, 1993, the first attack on the World Trade Center when six people were killed.

“The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the 2,977 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993.

“The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in North America. The pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. Architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the Memorial design selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations.

“The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.”