BOSTON—One day after the most deadly terrorist attack ever on the United States brought destruction to the country’s largest city and its capital, a stunned nation began the slow search for answers.

Chaos continued into the night, with further revelations of horror emerging from Tuesday’s hijacking and crash of four passenger jets that killed and injured thousands.

“The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war,” President George W. Bush said yesterday morning. “Freedom and democracy are under attack.”

In New York City, rescuers faced a daunting task, hoping to find any survivors still trapped within the ash-coated wreckage. By nightfall, 82 bodies had been recovered. The missing included more than 350 firefighters, 40 police officers and 30 port authority officers who had arrived at the scene immediately following Tuesday’s attack.

Only a handful of survivors had been rescued from the building’s remains.

“The best estimate we can make is that there were a few thousand people left in each building [when they collapsed],” said New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani at a press conference yesterday morning. “We are doing everything we can to recover other people.”

Giuliani said he ordered 6,000 body bags from federal officals for the recovery effort.

Much of New York remained paralyzed, with schools and office buildings closed, streets and sidewalks virtually empty. For the second day, the New York Stock Exchange did not open its doors, and it is not expected to do so again until next Monday.