Closings and cancellations following the September 11, 2001 attacks
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, several institutions responded with closures, cancellations, and postponements. Some of the most significant are listed here.
Closings
(taken to mean unusual closures on September 11, for any reason)
Evacuations
(taken to mean evacuation in light of perceived threat of attack)
Cancellations
Life, for the first time since the John F. Kennedy assassination in 1963, came to a standstill. People reacted the same way like then. However, the events were so deadly, that everything came to a standstill. Events were cancelled because it was not a time for fun and games when death and destruction were seen live on television. Most importantly, Americans understood the fact that never again could safety be taken for granted.
- Broadway theater shows (until Thursday evening when they resumed with dimmed marquees)
- US sporting events including:
- Major League Baseball. Games were first postponed for one day, then three, then all games through Sunday the 16th were postponed.
- The National Football League postponed football games on Sunday, September 16 and the Monday night game the night following. This was not an insignificant decision; in 1963, then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle did allow games to be played the Sunday after the John F. Kennedy assassination, later calling that the biggest mistake he ever made.
- NASCAR racing cancelled the Sunday, September 16 Winston Cup (NASCAR championship series) race.
- Division I-A college football games to be played Thursday, September 13 and Saturday, September 15 were postponed.
- The PGA golf tour cancelled the World Golf Championship (the American Express championship in Saint Louis, Missouri. This was the first time in five years the PGA cancelled a tournament.
- Voting in the city of New York (September 11 was a mayoral primary election day) was halted. Elections in Syracuse, New York and Buffalo, New York were delayed.
Postponements
- The 2001 Emmy Awards. Originally scheduled for September 16, 2001, the glamorous awards show was rescheduled twice (among rumors of cancelling the show entirely) before finally taking place on November 4, with a somewhat somber atmosphere.
- The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, a meeting of the heads of state of the nations of The Commonwealth to be held in Brisbane, Australia, was postponed. The organisers of the meeting claimed the cancellation was not so much a fear of terrorist attack on the meeting itself, but a desire by many Commonwealth leaders to stay at home in case of any further crisis-making world events (such as the commencement of overt military action in Afghanistan or elsewhere).
Travel effects
For at least a full day after the attacks, bridges and tunnels to the island of Manhattan were closed to (non-emergency) vehicle traffic in both directions. Among other things, this interrupted scheduled deliveries of food and other perishables, leading to shortages in restaurants.
All civilian airplane traffic in the United States was grounded until Thursday, September 13. United Airlines cancelled all flights worldwide temporarily. First stranded planes were allowed to go to their intended destinations; then limited service resumed. On Thursday night the New York area airports (JFK, La Guardia, Newark) were closed again, and were reopened Friday morning. The only traffic from La Guardia during the closure was a single C9C government VIP jet, departing at approximately 5:15PM on the 12th.
All train service through Union Station was suspended.
Beginning September 27, one-occupant cars were banned from crossing into Lower Manhattan from Midtown on weekday mornings, in an effort to relieve some of the crush of traffic in the city (the morning rush hour was lasting from 5:30 AM to noon), caused largely by the increased security measures put in place.
