The Boston Marathon bombings last week have left an indelible impression on the city of Boston. The now-infamous video of the first blast and the plume of smoke rising from the ground, followed by the many heroic acts that took place on that fateful day, are embedded in our collective memory.

The Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest, is an event that attracts thousands of participants from all around the world. It’s an event that has helped Boston transform itself into the city we know today: welcoming and diverse. The marathon is a symbol of what makes this city the city that it is.

It is also an economic powerhouse. According to a recent Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau survey, the marathon was due to inject nearly $95 million into the local economy, a small slice of the city’s $8 billion visitor economy.

It would be too easy to allow the terror that took place, which occurred 12 years after 9/11, to overtake us. For now, our city has become paralyzed with fear, a place in which police officers with big guns are in lockdown mode.

But this city, the Hub of the Universe, will recover from the tragedy. And it will be stronger than before. A day after the tragedy, many businesses were open. Fittingly, the Freedom Trail, which preserves the story of the American Revolution and fundamental American values, was also open.

“Boston is back on its feet,” Pat Moscaritolo, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, told Banker & Tradesman. “It may have been knocked down, but it’s going to move forward.”

It will take some time to reach some point of normalcy around the city, but Boston is and will continue to be a major business center in the U.S., and the world.