<p dir="ltr"><strong>Seen in May 2014, the new One World Trade Center rises above New York City, just steps from the location of the former World Trade Center buildings. Those iconic landmarks were destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001, when nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania lost their lives.</strong></p><p>National Geographic photo editors have chosen 27 iconic images that tell stories from one of the country's darkest days.</p><p dir="ltr">"I think many of the images from 9/11 still convey the rawness and brutality of the attack," said Clifford Chanin, an executive at New York City's <a href="http://www.911memorial.org/">National September 11 Memorial and Museum </a>and editor of <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/remembering-9-11/pictures-memory-remains/"><em>Memory Remains: 9/11 Artifacts at Hangar 17</em></a>, a book of photographs of 9/11 artifacts. "It seems to me that they still have the capacity to shock."</p><p dir="ltr"><strong>Warning: This gallery contains graphic content.</strong></p><p><em>—Brian Handwerk</em></p>