Egan was a prominent and steadying influence in New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 killed nearly 3,000 at the World Trade Center. "The cardinal responded to the disaster – ministering to the injured and anointing the dead at St. Vincent's Hospital and at Ground Zero itself, chairing committees and planning a center for victims' families at the New School and an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium, and offering Masses at St. Patrick's Cathedral in the immediate aftermath and funerals there and around the archdiocese for months."