Despite efforts to stabilize the area, danger still looms over the city. Yesterday evening, the 54-story home of Nasdaq’s new headquarters located across the street from the World Trade Center partially collapsed, with fears that other buildings nearby may also do the same. For a brief period, the Empire State Building—now the tallest building in New York City—as well as Penn Station, were evacuated as a precautionary measure.

The situation in Washington, D.C. was equally grim as the Pentagon resumed operations in a still-smoldering building.

The Arlington County Fire Department originally estimated that as many as 800 people may have died in the attack on the Pentagon, with virtually no hope of finding survivors. But now some goverment officials said the death toll could end up being significantly lower, ranging closer to 150 fatalities.

While operations in Washington were functioning yesterday, Bush cautioned that the city was nowhere near recovery, still operating on a “heightened security alert.”

“The federal government and all our agencies are conducting business, but it is not business as usual,” President Bush said yesterday morning. “America is going forward, and as we do so, we must remain keenly aware of the threats to our country.”

Airport Regulations Tightened

As Washington and New York began the lengthy recovery process, the rest of the nation slowly moved towards normalcy. Planes diverted and grounded during Tuesday’s emergency measures were permitted to finish their connecting paths yesterday, although all other civilian air traffic was prohibited.