WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tom Ridge, named the nation's first Homeland Security secretary after the 9-11 attacks, announced Tuesday that he is resigning after three years of reworking American security and presiding over color-coded terror alerts. He's the seventh Bush Cabinet officer leaving so far.

Ridge presided over the most significant government reorganization in 50 years. He'll be remembered for his terror alerts and tutorials about how to prepare for possible attacks, including the controversial "disaster kits" that caused last year's run on duct tape and plastic sheeting.

Amid warnings that the country may face increased terror risks around the holidays and the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration, Ridge said he will remain on the job through Feb. 1, unless his replacement is installed sooner.

Ridge acknowledged he could not prove the costly and complex security measures that have been put in place have foiled any terrorist attacks inside the United States, but he said the country is safer today than before the suicide hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

"I am confident that the terrorists are aware that from the curb to the cockpit we've got additional security measures that didn't exist a couple years ago," Ridge told reporters at the department's Washington campus, which he helped create.

Ridge sent his letter of resignation to President Bush at midday Tuesday, after attending a morning White House threat briefing with CIA and FBI officials. The former Pennsylvania governor, Ridge thanked Bush for giving him the opportunity to fight back against terrorists, as did the passengers on Flight 93, who forced their hijacked plane down in a Pennsylvania field. "There will always be more to do, but today, America is significantly stronger and safer than ever before," Ridge wrote Bush.

Ridge is the seventh of Bush's 15-member Cabinet to announce they won't be part of the second term.

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