| RETURN TO ESSAY National Security Sprawl by Deborah Natsios

The 11 September flightpath of hijacked AA77 linked two major anchors of Northern Virginia sprawl: Dulles International Airport (1962) and the Pentagon (1943), gateway to the area's prominent defence presence. The airliner's final overflight of urbanised landscapes culminated in an earthbound spiral that retraced the circumferential geometry of the Civil War fort system known as the Defenses of Washington.