In the foreground is the Empire State Building. While our new temporary space initially looked more like a warehouse than an office, it was wired for computer access and stocked with computers, supplies and telephones. The very next morning, al Qaeda proved me wrong. On Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 and crashed the airliners into the North Tower and South Tower (respectively) of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. I walked in and hugged my two daughters like I had never hugged them before. I got to Jamaica and was able to get a Long Island Rail Road train going to my station. At that point I wasnt really sure what to do. Select from premium World Trade Center Attacks of the highest quality. A woman on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade reacts to the collapse of the towers. 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. WebAmerican Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks.The hijackers deliberately crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on-board and ensuring the deaths of well over a thousand people who I finally got to make a phone call home, but my wife was teaching in school at the time so I just left a message that I was safe but didnt know when Id get home. For a moment, I thought we were buried alive. 25. I turned on CNN. A person jumps from the north tower of New York's World Trade Center as another clings to the outside while smoke and fire billow from the building. I made it home a number of hours later. She worked for an insurance company on the 94th floor of the North Tower. On October 9th the employees were contacted and told to report to work at One Penn Plaza. 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. One woman had a severe laceration on her arm. 45 Dorothy Morgan became the 1,646th World Trade Center victim to be identified through DNA testing. Enea has published the set of 38 found photos in an album over at Flickr. The north tower burns after an earlier attack by a hijacked airliner in New York City. Check out Military.com's original video series today. Since we still didnt know exactly what happened we decided to enter the Hotel New Yorker to find out what had happened and to call home. (Photo: Reuters), Smoke pours from a gaping hole and the upper floors of the World Trade Centre's North Tower, shortly after hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the buiding on September 11, 2001. Navy Times photographer Mark Faram captured the scene. I have always been fascinated by the historical significance of photojournalism, particularly regarding September 11, and when I remembered in February that I had unseen photographs, I scanned and posted them to my Flickr page, Enea says. (Photo: Reuters). She had gone to the Park Avenue Armory to file a missing persons report in the hopes of finding any information about her husband. A few seconds after hanging up the phone at 9:03 a.m., I felt a violent jolt, and then a falling sensation. (Photo: Reuters), Firemen work around the World Trade Center after both towers collapsed in New York. I immediately put the TV on to see the latest developments. A woman who worked for me at the time was about six months pregnant, so we went slowly in order to stay with her and help her down. (Photo: AP), A group of firefighters walk amid rubble near the base of the destroyed south tower of the World Trade Center in New York September 11, 2001. (Photo: AP), The remaining tower of New York's World Trade Center, Tower 2, dissolves in a cloud of dust and debris about a half hour after the first twin tower collapsed September 11, 2001. Im not sure I would have taken this photograph of a mother and child with its note of hope and looming tragedy if Rebecca hadnt been with me that day, Webb said. The photos sat unseen in Eneas possession until he remembered them again earlier this year. [United Airlines Flight 175 flied low towards the south Tower of the WTC, shortly before alamming into the structure. The story appeared in the Times the next day. I had no idea who he was. After making these photos, I looked down at the small display screen and knew at that point I had made a picture that needed to be seen by the rest of the world.. Amazingly, I ran into one of my employees who had also just arrived at Penn Station. Years later, One World Trade stands in its place. Reports from the CDC found that the collapse of the towers exposed workers and the general public to a number of known chemical carcinogens. Photo has been taken by the New York City Police Department. An official website of the United States government. People walk across the Brooklyn Bridge as they flee Lower Manhattan on September 11. It was a surreal scene where firefighters, police and a few civilians stumbled around, catching their breath, spitting out mouthfuls of mud, photographer Ruth Fremson said. Update on 4/28/21: Due to increased media attention, Enea has made the Flickr album private for now to prevent the images from being used without permission. It, too, was shut down. 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. Do I still have a job? I asked them why, out of all the thousands of people who worked there, would they be calling me? Claim: A man caught in the explosion of one of the World Trade Center towers rode bits of the falling building down to safety. Many of my co-workers began to leave the building immediately after the plane hit. When I got home around 4 p.m. AAP has won the Delhi mayor polls. My supervisors did an outstanding job contacting everyone and keeping them informed that plans were underway to find a new location. Its still something thats a bit hard to fully come to terms with. There were also many other firemen coming in their own private vehicles to help. Close. Since the sidewalks were full of people leaving the World Trade Center area, I was walking in the street right next to the firemen going directly into the area from which everyone else was evacuating. There was this golden feeling. Tragically, two co-workers who I considered personal friends took an opposite path that day, making their way from the 77th floor to their offices on the 78th just before the impact. Once we got into the 77th floor stairwell, I recall jet fuel pouring down the stairs. Learn more at Inside the Collection. WebPeople run from the collapse of World Trade Center Tower Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 in New York. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider We began walking north. I waited for about 30 minutes, but couldnt find any of my employees because there were hundreds of people leaving the area. Suzanne Plunkett was on the scene taking photos for the Associated Press. I think these pictures are interesting because they were taken from the point of view of a nearby resident. Found the internet! It was on her left, flying over the Statue of Liberty and heading right for Manhattan. The phrase that kept coming to my mind was Jesus is with you, McGraw told the Catholic Herald. WebPhotos show what the inside of the World Trade Centre looked like before it was torn down in a terror attack. The Falling Man. My mother-in-law was there with my daughters, but my wife was still trying to make her way home. I pulled up my T-shirt to cover my face. You see it with your eyes, but you are somehow mentally detached from it at the same time. 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.. Dist, smoke and ash engulf buildings around the World Trade Centre in NYC, after the collapse of both towers on Sep 11. Can it now control MCD? 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. Information looked pretty sketchy, but I decided to return to 77 to inform my remaining co-workers that I had TV coverage on upstairs if they wanted to come up. 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. American Airlines Flight 77 had crashed into the Pentagon, killing 184 people. It felt like being in the middle of hurricane. Her photo, seen above, ran on the front pages of newspapers all over the world the next day. 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. I remember thinking that the building was coming down and it was the end. At some point during the trip I received a phone call from a relative of an employee who had not yet been heard from. I saw a number of people jump to their death, desperate to get away from the heat/flames. Firefighters George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Billy Eisengrein raise an American flag at the site of the World Trade Center on September 11. Im saying to myself, Did (the towers collapse) ignite cancer cells in me?. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre were a familiar sight to New Yorkers for decades and for many they were a reassuring sight something on the lines of the Statue Of Liberty, they had become an icon of American spirit. I kept watching all through the night for any new developments. 2023 Getty Images. He later told me that I was speaking very quickly and not making much sense. What will become of our division? We slowly made our way down the 77 flights of stairs. I continued to photograph, but the smoke blocked out the sun and it became like night. We conjectured about the cause: Small airplane? or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. I mentioned previously I was definitely in some form of shock at that time and not thinking rationally. I had been in Lower Manhattan for about a half hour covering the attack, photographer Stan Honda said. The sense of security was a very important issue for my family, he said. This page was not helpful because the content, 9/11 Stories: I Was Inside the World Trade Center When It Happened. The album contains photos of the North Tower of the World Trade Center seconds after impact and then smoke billowing from both towers. The rest of the night was mostly a blur. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. While I had been in the midst of this massive story, walking on the very epicenter of ground zero, I had not seen much of the footage the rest of the world was seeing all day. Gulnara Samoilova, the photographer who took this photo for the Associated Press, was covered in dust just like them, and she remembers being in a state of shock, trying to get her bearings. User account menu. A New York City firefighter walks away from ground zero after the collapse of the towers. The first step was to contact all employees who worked at the World Trade Center to make sure everyone evacuated safely. I knew what was going to happen: I was going to witness hundreds of people die, she recalled nearly 20 years later. The Twin Towers were destroyed when Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked two passenger jets and crashed them into the towers and brought them down in never-before-seen scenes of mass tragedy that caused thousands of deaths nearly 3000 people. For the Associated Press underway to find a New York City Police Department phrase that coming. Sure what to do she recalled nearly 20 years later, One World Trade Center of! 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