Lessons From the Recovery of 2001

And so the next morning, Monday, Sept. 17, 2001, the New York Stock Exchange opened with a podium full of firemen, cops, emergency medical workers and elected officials. A Marine Corps major sang "God Bless America." There was silence. Then a Port Authority police officer, one of the last guys to come out of the pile, began to ring the bell. The others on the podium joined in. And as the bell rang out in triumph, the traders on the floor began to cry and cheer and shout themselves hoarse. Catherine Kinney was below the podium. "Was there a cheer—oh my God, you wouldn't believe. I cried, I did. And prices start to go across the tape . . ."

America was open for business again.

It was a great moment in Wall Street history.

Peggy Noonan remembers...