The LHC Experiments and Their Physics Accomplishments

The ATLAS and CMS experiments are projects of unprecedented technology, complexity and performance. Their successful operation during the first years of LHC data-taking is discussed, as well as the applications that some of the detector and computing technologies have found in other domains of science and society. The main LHC physics accomplishments to date, which cover a huge spectrum of exciting measurements as well as searches for new scenarios beyond the Standard Model, are presented. These results represent a significant step forward in our understanding of fundamental physics.