New York Air Route Traffic Control Center

It is the busiest of all ARTCCs within the United States, and was the world's first en-route air traffic control facility.

[10][11] In 1963, the New York ARTCC was moved into a new, purpose-built facility at Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma, in Suffolk County.

[12] It was designed to be able to withstand a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union and included the FAA's first real-time solid state computer used for air traffic control purposes; protection against a Soviet nuclear attack was, furthermore, one of the key reasons cited in favor of the facility's erection.

[18] As part of the project, many of the facility's electronic & technological components – including display screens and computers, were replaced with more modern and efficient ones.

[21][22][23][24] Several New York Center controllers who were on duty at the time of the hijackings aided the investigators and provided officials with their accounts of what went on during the events and what they heard through the air traffic communications.

[23][25] In 2011, a scandal was uncovered, in which it was revealed that several controllers at New York ARTCC were distracted and not doing their jobs while on duty, and that many of the facility's officials were aware of the problem but chose not to do anything about it, despite the behavior nearly causing collisions of large commercial aircraft.

[5][28][29][30] The closure caused severe air traffic disruptions across the region, and resulted in all flights to and from the New York and Philadelphia area airports to be temporarily halted.