Word eventually filtered through the crowd that WTC2, where my office resided, had just fallen. On October 9th the employees were contacted and told to report to work at One Penn Plaza. My company had offices on the 77th and 78th floors. I went in, and there was a small lobby where a few people were gathered, as confused as I was about what was happening.. While many of my employees were eligible to retire, no one did. As soon as the second tower was hit, the clarity of the situation became enormously clear, and fear struck in a way I will never forget.. A plane hits the south tower of the World Trade Center., Smoke and debris fill the airas the south tower of the World Trade Center collapses at 9:59 a.m. "Clearly, not even the police and FBI who had flooded the area were worried about collapse," said George Hackett of Newsweek. There was another woman there, crying and trying to reach out to her son. It has an ominous feeling to it.. Jonathan Weinberg is the founder and CEO of AutoSlash.com, a website dedicated to getting consumers the best possible price on their car rentals. I made it home a number of hours later. After the building collapsed, the crowd urgently resumed the evacuation with an escalated sense of alarm. Brett Roegiers, Sandra Stevenson and Bernadette Tuazon. The Secret Service has shared two pictures from inside a garage associated with its New York City field office that were taken after the 9/11 attacks. It was one of the most difficult and emotional conversations Ive ever had in my life. Firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Billy Eisengrein raise an American flag at the site of the World Trade Center on September 11. I told her Id call her again when I could. That smell was in my nose and the taste of it in my mouth for weeks afterwards.. I kept watching all through the night for any new developments. We (about 10 of us) made our way to the stairwell on the northeastside of the building. It was then that he finally saw the dramatic video footage that much of the world had already seen by this point. I called my wife to let her know what was happening. Culbertson spoke about the harrowing moment in the 2014 Astronauts: Houston We Have a Problem. It was one of the happiest days of my near-forty year career. NASA showing smoke pouring out into the sky. It wasnt until later that night when I checked into my hotel, about 36 hours after it had all begun, that I had a chance to turn on the TV and watch a full account of the events. Collection 9/11 Memorial Museum, Courtesy of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Subscribe to receive updates to the Employee Resources Blog, An official website of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. How do you go from being healthy to waking up the next day with cancer? she said in an interview with the Jersey Journal before her death. While wed spoken earlier and she knew I was O.K., that was before the second plane hit WTC2. I never saw so many different types of fire fighting vehicles. The attack, in which 19 Al-Qaeda suicide bombers hijacked four passenger jets, remains the deadliest terror strike on US soil. (Photo: Reuters), Firemen work around the World Trade Center after both towers collapsed in New York. Having worked as a baggage handler at JFK airport for a summer (ironically for United Airlines of all companies), I knew what jet fuel smelled like. When I was standing beside the towers when I first left building 6 I thought the worst was over. Photos show what the inside of the World Trade Centre looked like before it was torn down in a terror attack. Thousands of survivors and first responders have been diagnosed with cancers resulting from the terrorist attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We had gotten maybe five blocks away when we heard a large rumble and saw a massive dust cloud to the south of us, from the direction we came. Im not sure she was even aware of their presence.. Despite losing all their national commodity files, records and resource materials, the national specialists, their assistants and the staff in the Customs Information Exchange were ready to get back to work to perform their assigned tasks. She worked for an insurance company on the 94th floor of the North Tower. 2,606 of the victims came from the World Trade Center and the surrounding area, while a further 125 were killed at the WebHere are some of the haunting photos of the post tragedy photos from September 11 attack that sum up the tragedy. 9/11 attack: 16 years on, the wound of the September 11 attack is still fresh in the minds and hearts of many. Shanken was drawn to the scene because of its irony: a welcome sign during an evacuation. Words with my co-workers, which I cannot recall were exchanged, and I decided to set off on my own to try to get home and reach my family to let them know I was O.K. . I returned to my office and decided to call my mother. Sancetta took the photo from an open parking garage. First responders assist people in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Centers collapse. Rescue workers move the body of the Rev. Over 2,606 people were killed in and around the World Trade Center in the attacks. These photos capture one of the most influential events in human history, Enea writes. Women were learning to drive. I was photographing the building, and an EMT said 'Oh my gosh, look at that,' and then we started seeing people coming down, he said. A New York City firefighter walks away from ground zero after the collapse of the towers. Standing right near tower one and looking up I saw what appeared to be the outline of a plane right through the side of the building. WebA place for pictures and photographs. Take a look in the gallery above. That letter was something as a photojournalist that comes as a gut punch, but makes you really value the job we do.. Close. Unbeknownst to me at the time, my wife had arrived at work at the Midtown financial firm where she worked, right around the time my building was hit. Finally, the relative captured various points in the immediate recovery effort at Ground Zero. I returned to my office and decided to call my mother. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider But advertising revenue helps support our journalism. I started choking and couldnt breathe. You see it with your eyes, but you are somehow mentally detached from it at the same time. There was some brief discussion about going up (I cannot recall why), but the injured woman or someone she was with mentioned that everyone was dead on the 78th floor. People walk across the Brooklyn Bridge as they flee Lower Manhattan on September 11. And it was scary to see so many first responders in the midst of reconciling with the overwhelming nature of the situation. The Falling Man. These strangers told me about their first trip to New York City, or when they took their child up to the observation deck of the Twin Towers, or, with regret, how they wished they had done it while they could, she said. (LockA locked padlock) Suddenly (DeFazio) paused on the sidewalk, overcome by grief and worry. We had a large conference room there with a projector and cable TV, so I wanted to get the news on to see what was happening. WebApr 26, 2021 Michael Zhang A few years ago, a man named Liam Enea got his hands on a photo album from his late relative. The World Trade Centre officially opened in 1973 and became a top tourist attraction, welcoming 200,000 visitors a day alongside the 50,000 people who worked in the buildings. But to me, she said, it is the full frame image that tells the story: the perfect blue sky, the classic NYC skyline and a black plane, frozen in time, a second before the world changed.. Wherever you looked, there were groups of first responders working different areas of the debris, looking for whoever they could find.. Ill never forget the pure joy of seeing everyone again in our temporary conference room. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, in coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and a crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Source: New York State Education Department, History.com, Source: New York State Education Department,History.com, Source: New York State Education Department, Source: World Trade Center, 911memorial.org. The delis entrance is seen in the background. We will never know whether this man jumped or fell. As I made my way downtown to the area where this picture was taken, on Church Street near the intersection with Dey Street, it was difficult to make sense of what was going on, photographer Justin Lane said. To read our full stories, please turn off your ad blocker.We'd really appreciate it. (Photo: Reuters), A group of firefighters stand in the street near the destroyed World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Even a mental inventory of the things that were in my office that no longer existed. He remembers how beautiful the morning was just before tragedy struck. People have a reaction to this, Drew said. That is when I saw the men carrying Father Judge in a chair, Reuters photographer Shannon Stapleton said. "They wouldn't have been anywhere near to the buildings as they were. The impacts and fires caused the steel structure elements in the skyscrapers to fail, and the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. after burning for 56 minutes, and the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. after burning for 102 minutes. In this photo, taken by Paul J. Richards, he was learning about the second. WebThe World Trade Centers South Tower bursts into flames after being hit by United Airlines Flight 175. 25. It was the early days of digital photography, and Franklin remembers going to a nearby hotel lobby to use a dial-up Internet connection and send his photos back to the office. I can only describe it as surreal. The building management of 7 World Trade Center then decided to open the emergency exits to let everyone outside. You have to remember there were no smartphones in 2001; I had no way to see this imagery up until this point, he said. Judge, the New York Fire Department chaplain, died in the line of duty when struck by debris from the south tower while administering last rites to a firefighter. Firefighters raise a U.S. flag where the World Trade Center formerly stood on Sept. 11. I mentioned previously I was definitely in some form of shock at that time and not thinking rationally. I remember how incredibly loud it was: a crushing roar of steel and cement, of people screaming and the sound of their pounding footfalls frantically racing past me, photographer Amy Sancetta said. See howthe original World Trace Center evolved into today's Freedom Tower after the attacks of 9/11. It was then that I noticed large chunks of concrete and pieces of metal in my path. She manages the Carter Center's work on U.S elections Ukraines president has pledged to push for victory in 2023 as he and other Ukrainians marked the somber first Dr. Frank Richards serves as a senior advisor at the Carter Center. Unfortunately, this is a day I will never forget. Plans were already underway to explore possible relocation sites. Apparently the conference room that I had been standing in just a few minutes before was now obliterated. My route took me up West Broadway. I was with a colleague and my boss at the time. Chief of staff Andrew Card interrupts President Bush at 9:07 a.m. during a school visit in Sarasota, Fla., to inform him that a second plane hit the World Trade Center. Reverence is about as close as I can get. Twice is more than enough, he said, referring to 9/11 and the 1993 bombing of the Twin Towers. A few seconds after hanging up the phone at 9:03 a.m., I felt a violent jolt, and then a falling sensation. The moment was fleeting. Once we got into the 77th floor stairwell, I recall jet fuel pouring down the stairs. All we needed was to have our employees return.