WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- The events on September 11th of 2001 inspired the creation of the agency known as the TSA.
The Transportation Security Administration has implemented drastic changes to the way we travel, and Brittany Morehouse took a look at how security has changed.
In the introduction to the film "Love Actually" we see a classic airport scene -- words like "emotion", "family" and "love" come to mind.
But today those embraces are replaced by distant waves and a more appropriate word is "nostalgia."
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Stephen Barzal and his wife Claudia remember how the airport was an emotional place but according to Stephen, "we've lost some of that."
They remember with different viewpoints. He is American and she is Columbian.
"When I came to the United States for the first time I was shocked by the lack of security," said Claudia.
Because in her country, she explained, "Security in Columbia has been a way of life for 35 years. When you are at the airport -- women are segregated from men your suitcases go through x-ray machines all the time. And a lot time when women fly alone they call your names and you have to go to a room and undress....so when people in America get upset about all the security, it's been like that in South America and Israel too for 30, 40 years."
It's a way of life that still feels like a violation to some in the U.S. but TSA spokesman Kawika Riley insists it's necessary.
Riley explained, "Before TSA, aviation security was done one airport at a time and if you'd seen one airport system you'd just seen one. TSA has instituted a more standardized high security system of layered security."
They were layers the traveling public might not see.
"Our pre-screening that we do for our behavioral detection officers or even our intelligence officers that inform the decisions that are made security-wise," said Riley.
Not all the security changes happened right away. Some of them were gradual and reactionary, such as liquid containers in a Ziploc bag and the no-shoes on policy. The latter came after the 2001 shoe bomb plot on American Airlines Flight 63. In 2006, a transatlantic aircraft plot was foiled. Terrorists planned to liquid explosives on 10 planes.
They are stories that seem the norm to Thomas Barzal, who says on 9-11, "I was in the 8th grade so not that much at all security back then all I remember is it was a lot more relaxed."
And that helps him relax in security lines since he can't really say "remember when."
And if you'll recall, those full body scanning machines were controversial. Now the TSA uses scanning machines that offer more privacy. The images are stick figures instead of outlines of bodies.