This article assesses the manner in which terrorist attacks have been remembered and forgotten within New York during the twentieth century. As a ‘global city’, New York has frequently been the focus of individuals and groups seeking to promote their cause by attacking targets in the city, its businesses, its infrastructure, its organisations and its citizens. By examining how these events were reported and subsequently incorporated or dismissed within both the urban fabric and the city’s ‘collective memory’ this article addresses how violent terrorism is engaged with by society. Building upon the advances made within the study of modern conflict archaeology, this article examines the possibility of an archaeology of terrorism.