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It began as a day like any other.
The sun rose over New York City, casting
its first light over a city in motion.
A city of nearly nine million lives intertwined
in a routine as familiar as breathing.
The world was alive with routine.
Parents hurrying to get their kids ready for
school, office workers making their way into towering
buildings, travelers settling into seats, fastening seatbelts for
flights that would carry them across the country.
Here, people gathered their dreams and their futures,
entwined in the tapestry of a city that never stopped moving.
As the morning light painted buildings and streets
in warm hues, lives intersected in the shadow
of New York's iconic towers, reminders of the heights people could reach.
Below them, the city's arteries pulsed with energy,
a vibrant mosaic of languages, cultures and stories
woven together into the fabric of a place adored around the world.
But this was no ordinary day.
In a single moment, that rhythm would break and everything would change.
This is the story of New York on that day, and the lives that were forever
altered in its wake.
It is 8a.m. in Salisbury, North Carolina, 7 a.m. in Chicago, 5 a
...m. in Calaveras County, California, where the news
is being made on this Tuesday, September 11th.
For the second time in two weeks, the U.S. has lost an unmanned spy plane over Iraq.
A definite new look for you.
What are you going for?
What am I going for?
The of Congo, three years, two and a half million dead.
We thought you should know.
We want to tell you what we know as we know it, but we just got a report.
He was absolutely the most amazing man that America has ever created, ever.
Okay. I have got to interrupt you right now.
Richard Hack, thank you very much.
We appreciate it. The book is called Hughes.
We want to go live right now and show you a picture of the World Trade
Center, where I understand, do we have it?
No, we do not.
We have a breaking story, though.
We're going to come back with that in just a moment.
First, this is today on NBC.
American 11, Boston.
American 11, the American on the frequency, how do you hear me?
This is Adam.
This is Boston.
I turned American 20 left and I was going to climb.
He will not respond to me now.
It looks like he's turning right.
Yeah, I turned him 20 right.
- Oh, okay. - And he's only going to, I think, 29.
Number 3 in the back, the cockpit's not answering.
Somebody's stabbed in business class.
And I think there's mace that we can't breathe.
I don't know.
I think we're getting hijacked.
Which flight are you on?
Flight 12.
And what seat are you in?
Ma'am, are you there?
Yes.
What seat are you in?
Ma'am, what seat are you in?
We just left Boston.
We're up in the air.
We're supposed to go to L.A. And the cockpit's not answering their phone.
Okay, but what seat are you sitting in?
What's the number of your seat?
Okay, I'm in my jump seat right now.
- Okay. - At 3R.
Okay, you're the flight attendant?
I'm sorry, did you say you're the flight attendant?
Hello?
Yes, what is your name?
You're going to have to speak up.
I can't hear you.
Sure, what is your name?
Okay, my name is Betty Ong.
I'm number 3 on flight 11.
Okay.
And the cockpit is not answering their phone.
And there's somebody stabbed in business class.
And we can't breathe in business class.
Somebody's got mace or something.
Our number 1 has been stabbed and our 5 has been stabbed.
Can anybody get up to the cockpit?
We can't even get into the cockpit.
We don't know who's up there.
Is anybody still there?
Yes, we're still here.
Okay.
I'm staying on the line as well.
Okay.
Have you guys called anyone else?
No.
Somebody's calling medical and we can't get a...
American Airlines Emergency Line, please state your emergency.
Hey, this is Knitted American Airlines calling.
I am monitoring a call in which flight
11, the flight attendant is advising our reps
that the pilot, everyone's been stabbed.
30-mana, 6-7-4-0.
Is that American 11 trying to call?
Buddy, we have some planes.
Just stay quiet and you'll be okay.
We're heading to the airport.
15-7-4-0 going to Hampton.
And who's trying to call me here?
American 11, are you trying to call?
Nobody moves.
Everything will be okay.
If he tries to make any moves, he'll injure himself and the airplane.
Just stay quiet.
Hi, Boston Center, TMU.
We have a problem here.
We have a hijacked aircraft headed towards New
York and we need you guys to... We need someone to scramble some F-16s
or something up there.
Help us out.
Oh shit!
Shit!
Kennedy Tower reports... Are you serious?
Kennedy Tower reports that there was a fire
at the World Trade Center.
And that's the area where we lost the airplane.
Oh, shit!
Oh, my God!
Oh, shit!
Oh, my God!
Oh, shit!
Oh, my God!
- Oh, shit! - Oh my God!
This just in, you were looking at obviously
a very disturbing live shot there.
That is the World Trade Center.
Apparently, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
8.46 a.m. Five hijackers deliberately crashed
American Airlines Flight 11 into the World Trade Center's North Tower.
Oblivious to what was about to happen, 100
innocent people were attending a conference in the
Windows on the World restaurant at the top of the North Tower.
Among them was 31-year-old Christopher Hanley
who made one of the first recorded calls
to 911 emergency services that day.
Yeah, hi.
I'm on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center.
We just had an explosion.
The 106th floor?
Yes.
106th, okay.
We have smoke and it's pretty bad.
We can't get down the stairs.
All right.
We've got about a hundred people up here.
Do not leave, okay?
There's a fire or an explosion or something in the building.
All right, I want you to stay where you are.
- Yes. - All right, we're there.
We're coming up to get you.
There's smoke coming up from outside the windows down...
All right, we're on the way.
Just sit tight.
All right, just sit tight.
We're on the way.
All right, please hurry.
With no prior threat or government security intelligence
warning, a terrorist attack was unexpected, so the
common consensus both inside and on the ground
was that an unexplained explosion had rocked the North Tower.
The brutal truth was that American Airlines Flight
11, whilst traveling upwards of 460 miles per
hour, had hit the north face of the
building, creating a catastrophic chasm in the World
Trade Center Tower between floors 93 and 99.
Flight 11's trajectory reached the very center of
the North Tower, cutting through the three blocks
of staircases in the process.
Above the impact point on floor 93, every
person's route to safety was destroyed.
The reality, 1,344 lives were in mortal jeopardy.
The plane's tanks erupted with 90,000 liters
of jet fuel upon impact with the North
Tower, igniting a ferocious blaze that consumed the building's interior.
Office materials fed the flames, creating an overwhelming
inferno of searing heat, choking smoke and intense
fire, rendering the environment uninhabitable for human life.
Adding to the horror, now-damaged elevator shafts
provided a lethal conduit for the burning jet
fuel to rage through the floors of the
building as far as the entrance lobby.
An estimated 8,000 people who could evacuate
from the floors below the 93rd-story point
of impact were faced with a chaotic and frightening scenario.
The World Trade Center Towers were not designed
to accommodate a large-scale evacuation.
Each of the twin towers was equipped with
only three narrow stairwells leading to the ground level.
When the plane struck, the force of the
impact caused the structures to shift, jamming doors
in their frames and blocking stairwells with debris from shattered walls.
This left dozens of people trapped in an
increasingly desperate situation, particularly those on the floors
near the impact zones.
With escape routes destroyed, the intense flames, suffocating
heat and thick black smoke created unbearable conditions
inside the North Tower.
In a heartbreaking attempt to escape the inferno,
it is estimated that between 100 and 200
people chose to jump to their deaths rather
than succumb to the flames consuming the building.
Have you seen any evidence, Elliot, of people
being taken out of the building?
You say that emergency vehicles are a concern as human loss.
Oh my God, another plane has just hit.
Holy shit, Mark.
That's the other building.
That's terrorist.
That's terrorist, bro.
That's fucking terrorist.
It was now clear that this was no accident.
Initially, after the attack on the North Tower,
workers, staff and visitors in the South Tower
were told to stay where they were.
After the second crash, a mass evacuation began
in the South Tower, below the impact zone of stories 77 to 85.
Confusion reigned.
Even though one of the stairwells in the
South Tower was undamaged as the plane had
hit the building at an offset from the
vertical center line and could therefore be a
route to safety, it was filled with choking
black smoke, leading many to mistakenly make their
way upwards towards the roof for a rescue that never materializes.
Tragically, too, individuals heeded the instructions given by
9-1-1 telephone operators and earlier building
- wide announcements to stay put.
Sean, it's me.
I just wanted to let you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building
in New York.
A plane hit the building where a bomb went off.
I don't know, but there's lots of smoke and we just wanted you to know that
I love you always.
For those fortunate enough to be below the
impact zones of the Twin Towers, escaping was a harrowing ordeal.
They navigated through collapsed ceilings, shattered partitions and
cascading water from broken pipes.
Fires and dense, suffocating smoke further obstructed their
path, reducing visibility and increasing the peril.
For those trapped above the impact zones, conditions
were dire and rapidly deteriorating.
The sealed windows of the World Trade Center,
not designed to open, left many without access to fresh air.
Some windows were shattered by the force of
the plane impacts, while others were broken by
occupants desperately seeking relief from the encroaching smoke
and intense heat.
One of the most haunting images from Sept.
11 is the falling man, taken by photographer Richard Drew.
The photo shows an unnamed man believed to
have fallen from the North Tower in a
striking pose resembling an arrow, almost serene in descent.
While he didn't choose his fate, the image
suggests a quiet acceptance, inviting reflection on human
dignity and resilience in the face of unimaginable choices.
Though efforts to identify him remain inconclusive, the
photograph has become a symbol of individual tragedy
amid collective loss, capturing a moment of grace within chaos.
Initially controversial, it endures as a powerful reminder
of the human cost of that day.
Upon their completion in 1973, the Twin Towers
briefly held the title of the tallest buildings
in the world, and by the time of
the 2001 terrorist attacks, they remained among the top five tallest.
Their collapse stunned the engineering community, as fire
had never before caused a skyscraper to fail,
and the towers had been designed to withstand the impact of an aircraft.
John Skilling, the lead structural engineer for the
World Trade Center, had speculated on such a
scenario after the 1993 bombing.
Reflecting on the potential consequences of a plane
crash, he remarked, our analysis indicated the biggest
problem would be the fact that all the
fuel from the airplane would dump into the building.
There would be a horrendous fire, a lot
of people would be killed, but the building structure would still be there.
Tragically, his assumptions would be proven wrong just eight years later.
His calculations had not accounted for the devastating
effects of a jetliner flying at high speed
or the intense large-scale fires fueled by
thousands of gallons of aviation fuel.
No design had been prepared for such extraordinary circumstances.
I don't think anybody expected this building to
collapse even after the structural damage on the top.
These buildings were wrapped in steel the way
your foot is wrapped by a sock.
The steel side structures were not holding up these floors.
These floors were held up by pinions, one between each floor.
And so when the first two floors gave
way, the weight of that was sufficient to
collapse every pinion and every floor, you know,
straight down to the bottom.
Jack Tagliarcio, a news cameraman, captured the moment
the first tower fell.
A massive global audience watched in shock as
the twin towers were destroyed, their collapse broadcast
live on television and radio.
When the deafening roar of the falling towers
subsided, dense clouds of gray-white pulverized concrete
and gypsum surged through the streets of Manhattan.
Initially, many believed a new explosion or impact
had caused the billowing smoke and debris that obscured the South Tower.
But as the winds cleared the haze, the grim reality emerged.
The towering structure was gone.
This video was captured by the Naudet brothers
from inside the North Tower as the South fell.
The North Tower's gypsum-lined stairwells had been
obliterated on impact, leaving no one above floors 93 to 99 able to escape.
Though the smoke and flames told part of
the story from the outside, the harrowing calls
from within revealed the unseen reality, an essential
window into the anguish and courage of those trapped inside.
Mom, it's Stephen.
Um, my plane, my building got hit by a
plane, and right now, I think I'm okay, I'm safe now, but it's smoky.
I just want to say how much I love you, and, uh...
I will, uh, call you when I'm safe.
Okay, Mom?
Bye.
Shimmy, just hang in there.
Just breathe slowly through a towel.
Are you breathing through the towel?
Everything's fine.
Everybody's fine. Everybody's very calm. Everything's going to be fine.
You just have to stay calm.
Everybody here is calm.
I promise you.
Your girls don't even know because they're in school.
The parents are here, they’re very calm.
Just keep your head straight.
Okay, do you see smoke by the window?
The fire department’s... You can't see?
Do we see smoke by the window?
The fire department wants to know.
No smoke by the window.
Listen carefully. As a last resort, break the window as
small as possible just to get a little air in.
Okay, do you follow?
Yes.
Okay, how so?
They said as a last resort, we should
open the window just a little bit just to get some air in.
Can you open the window or do you have to break it?
Huh?
We have to break it.
- Yeah? - Break the window.
Okay, Shimmy, Shimmy, take the window.
As little as possible, just get a little, uh...
If you're running out of air, we should do that.
Okay?
Smoke, new building, 105, 2-5.
All right, stick tight.
We'll get to you as soon as we can.
You can stay in that smoke-free building there.
That's all we can do.
That's where you guys got to.
We're getting there.
It doesn't feel like it, man.
I got young kids.
I understand that, sir.
There's lots of people up here.
I understand.
And then you go out in the building, and there's a really big hip-up on the top.
Smoke rises.
You can really see it.
We're on the floor.
We're in a window.
And then you have to be in green here.
You can't see.
Okay.
Just try to hang in there.
I want to save it.
It's too easy for you to say.
You're in an air-conditioned building.
It's really bad.
It's black. It's arid.
We're young men.
We're not ready to die.
I understand.
Hello?
Hello!
We're overlooking the financial center.
Three of us, two broken windows.
At 11 a.m., Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ordered
the evacuation of Lower Manhattan, south of Canal
Street, affecting over one million residents, workers, and tourists.
Meanwhile, rescue efforts at the World Trade Center
site continued throughout the afternoon in a desperate
search for survivors.
I feel terrible for the people that we lost, some of whom I talked to just
15 minutes before we lost them.
And the city is going to survive.
We're going to get through it.
It's going to be a very, very difficult time.
I don't think we yet know the pain that we're going to feel when we find
out who we lost.
But the thing we have to focus on now is getting the city through this and
surviving and being stronger for it.
It's difficult to find the words to describe
the feeling in New York City today.
New York City is in shock.
One of its most famous landmarks destroyed, thousands
dead, and America is under siege.
I felt horrified, cos it's like you don't know what's coming.
They kept saying, there's another plane coming, and
all you hear was this rumbling, people was
crying, people was jumping out the window.
They was waving, like, trying to, like, say, help me.
Like, you see their arms.
And then you saw the man jump down, and he just... Everybody was jumping.
It was crazy.
I was standing down on 6th Avenue earlier,
and I watched the flames coming out of
the Trade Center, and I saw it collapse,
and it was just the most horrible thing I've ever seen in my life.
Unbelievable. I didn't think something like this could happen,
especially in New York.
Makes you wonder what our intelligence community is
doing, you know, to have something like this happen.
How can this happen?
This is world-reaching.
It's not just the city.
It's around the world.
It's going to... I don't think anything will ever be the same again.
Prior to September 11, 2001, the United States
was not officially engaged in any wars.
Islamic extremism, al-Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden
were largely unfamiliar to the general public, and ISIS had yet to emerge.
The events of that day marked a pivotal
moment in history, a clear divide between the
world as it existed before the attacks and
the profoundly changed reality that followed.
The shock and devastation of September 11, 2001
extended far beyond the immediate aftermath, leaving a
profound and lasting impact on American life and global consciousness.
What once seemed inconceivable, a large-scale attack
on U.S. soil, became a grim new reality.
The unthinkable possibility of future attacks, potentially involving
biological or nuclear weapons, turned into a shared and persistent fear.
This sense of vulnerability and uncertainty did not
just ripple through New York City, but reverberated
across the nation and the world.
When we sit down at our dinner table, we have an empty chair.
When we get together for holidays, we have an empty chair.
We can't move on.
There's no closure.
There is no closure.
What I'm thinking is, I have to look down and see that this is no longer
here, and he's no longer here, and everyone
else thinks that this is just okay and it's fine and we can move on, and
we can't.
Firefighters from the New York City Fire Department
rushed to the World Trade Center minutes after
the first plane struck the North Tower.
Chief Joseph Pfeiffer and his crew with Battalion
One were among the first on the scene.
I just got to work in the office, and for some reason it was early and
somebody had a TV on watching the news,
and this whole thing started on live TV.
So we started, we had a meeting, and
about 8.30 I got activated through FEMA for the response.
Initially, the team focused on the rescue and
evacuation of the building's occupants, which involved sending
firefighters up to assist people who were trapped
in elevators and elsewhere, as well as ensuring
all floors were completely evacuated.
Many of the evacuees commented afterwards that the
bravery of these firefighters was immeasurable.
The look on their faces was one of steadfast determination.
They were aware of the dangers they would
face, yet continued on, hour upon hour, regardless
of their own safety and well-being.
Problems with radio communication also caused further problems
as commanders lost contact with many of the firefighters in the buildings.
Coupled with this, as the news of the
attacks spread, many off-duty firefighters arrived at
the scene eager to help, but without their radios.
As a result, firefighters encountered difficulties reporting on
their progress and location and were unable to
hear evacuation orders, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Oreo Palmer was one such brave firefighter who
lost his life in his quest to save others.
Without thought for his own safety, he rushed
from the North Tower to the South at 9.03 a.m. On the stairwells, he
realized that some firefighters could not communicate with
each other, so worked quickly to rectify the
problem with the radio receivers.
Then, although most elevators had been rendered non-operational,
Palmer single-handedly fixed one and took
it to the 41st floor, which was halfway
to the impact zone, which spanned the 77th to the 85th floors.
This is Battalion 7 on floor 40 of tower two.
We've got one elevator working up to the 40th floor.
Staffed by a member of ladder 15.
Climbing on foot, he was a very fit man, so he was able to make it
where others might not have been able to.
He ascended 12 floors in 10 minutes, wearing
all the bunker gear, weighing in at a crippling 50 to 60 pounds.
Those fortunate enough to have survived the initial
impact of the crash on the 78th floor
hoped to take an elevator to comparative safety
on the 41st, but it failed to work.
Palmer did the unthinkable and reached the 78th floor to save them.
We're on the 43rd floor, stairway B.
What floor should we try to get up to, Orio?
I'm up to 55, we're gonna have to hoof it.
I'm on 69 now, but we need a higher bank.
B stairway walls have been compromised on 73 and 74.
The walls are breached so be careful.
It is clear he is in a race for time, saving his oxygen and energy.
He discovered the south stairwell was safe to the impact zone and beyond.
For the hundreds trapped there, this stairwell was an escape route.
What stairway are you in right now?
South stairwell, south tower.
We've got two outside the pockets of fire,
we should be able to knock it down with two lines Where are you?
Radio that. 78th floor.
Numerous 10-45 code 1’s.
Floor 78?
10-4.
Numerous civilians, we’re gonna need two engines up here.
Alright 10-4, we're on our way.
After such Herculean efforts on his part, tragically,
the impact of the crash was so strong
that the south tower collapsed, killing him and many others.
All I can tell you is just put
yourself in that position as your family member.
Every one of these firefighters in here are our brothers.
Every one of these police officers in here are our brothers.
And the civilians that are in here are
the people that we're sworn to protect.
That's our job, that's what we do.
And as far as I'm concerned, I treat
every person in there as my personal family,
and every firefighter does the same thing.
Our job is to go in and do what we have to do.
We tell them to rest.
They do get their rest.
We tell them to sit down.
We have guys lined up over there, thousands
of firefighters and fire officers lined up over
there with police officers waiting for the opportunity to go in.
We have to hold them back because we
don't want to create a situation where because
of the structural defects, etc., where they're going
to be put further in danger, and maybe
during the recovery process we wind up endangering someone else.
That's our worst fear right now.
Volunteers quickly descended on Ground Zero to help
in the rescue and recovery efforts.
At Jacob Javits Convention Center, thousands showed up
and registered with the authorities.
Construction projects around the city came to a
halt as workers walked off jobs to help at Ground Zero.
The amount of rubble, actually, what we were
trying to do was dig out a fire truck that was on the street, buried.
I really thought I was going to just die yesterday.
Like, I just thought I was going to stop breathing.
I was thinking of leaving.
And then I saw these guys, you know,
coming back that are supposed to take an
hour and a half shifts, and they're not
coming back because they refused to give up.
And then I thought, like, these guys are
staying, and they need medical attention.
I mean, these firemen and these police officers
and if they could stay, I could stay.
You know, just droves and droves of firefighters
and EMS people and city workers, you know,
MTA workers and Verizon people and, you know,
just a lot of people that look dog
- tired and, you know, working hard hours trying
to do whatever they can to clear people
out and find whoever might still be alive.
There was, I think, one gentleman they were
still in touch with on a cell phone who was buried in a car that they
were trying to get to.
So we kept digging, and as we were
digging, there was a big explosion, a bang, you know.
And within 10 minutes, we kept digging, and
they started pulling everybody out.
Believe me, after going in there, we're still standing.
It doesn't look like it.
It looks like everything's down, everything's gone.
But we are still standing.
You got to see these people.
Like, there's no such thing as having one hero anymore.
Search and rescue efforts in making the site
of the Twin Towers safe in the immediate
aftermath of 9-11 involved iron workers, structural
engineers, asbestos workers, boiler makers, carpenters, cement masons,
construction managers, electricians, insulators, machinists, plumbers, and pipe
fitters, amongst other professions.
400 working dogs were also deployed in the quest to find survivors.
Their presence brought comfort, hope, and healing during
a time of immense grief and trauma, showcasing
the deep bond between humans and animals.
These brave dogs and their handlers remain a
symbol of resilience and compassion.
You spoke to him then while he was watching the first.
And what was that like?
He said it was really chaotic.
He said a plane just went through the building.
He said, Rachel, I just watched somebody jump
or get pushed or fall right out of the building out of One World Trade.
He's like, it's chaotic here.
I work for Bloomberg News, so I said, can I get anyone on the phone to
talk about what you're seeing?
And he's like, you don't understand.
It's chaotic.
And none of them ever knew that it was a terrorist attack.
They all thought it was an accident.
No one ever knew.
And they were all still on the phone right before the second plane crashed.
If I think about it, they had no time to get out.
They had no time to run.
But I still was keeping hope.
Was he on the phone to you when the second plane?
He was on the phone to me about
two minutes before the second plane went in.
And you never got to him again after that?
I called back, and his phones were dead.
I don't know what else to do.
I'm just going from place to place.
This was my fiance.
I have planned my whole future out with this person.
If I don't find him, I have to start all over again.
It's taken me my entire life to find him, and I don't know what I will
do without him.
Please, please help me find him.
The day after the attack, then-Mayor Rudy
Giuliani told reporters that they were receiving mobile
phone calls from people trapped in the debris.
But there was little hope for most.
Congress quickly established an extensive compensation program in
the aftermath to compensate the victims and families
of victims of the 9-11 attack, with
tremendous amounts also raised by the public.
Americans have many questions tonight.
Americans are asking, who attacked our country?
The evidence we have gathered all points to
a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known
as al-Qaeda.
Our message to them is clear.
No matter how long it takes, America will
find you, and we will bring you to justice.
Rallying around the populist phrase, United we stand,
Americans were determined to be resilient in the
face of this unprecedented and devastating attack on their homeland.
President Bush and the federal government found widespread
support for their response to the attacks and
seemingly a need for retribution.
Nearly 3,000 people in New York, Virginia,
and Pennsylvania lost their lives on 9-11
after terrorists orchestrated by Osama bin Laden hijacked
airplanes as weapons.
As the years pass, suffering continues alongside the
memorializing among those who lost loved ones and
by survivors who sustained injuries or who were
forever changed by the horrific events, even as
the country and the world changes.
My name is Stan Honda.
I'm a former AFP photographer, and I was
here on 9-11 photographing the Trade Center attack.
Well, that morning, I got a phone call
from one of the other AFP photo stringers,
and he watches the early morning news, and
he said there's a plane that crashed in the World Trade Center.
I live near the number 6 subway train, and I think I was on the last
train that was running that ended up at the City Hall Brooklyn Bridge stop.
We're on Fulton right near Broadway, and I
think I was around this area photographing the
people running from the Trade Center site and
also the first tower as it was collapsing.
You could see this cloud of dust and
debris and smoke coming between the buildings through
the streets and toward where I was standing,
so that was pretty frightening.
I think this is the area where I had come out of the building after the
first tower had collapsed, and the whole area
was covered with this white and gray dust,
so it really looked like it had snowed.
The sidewalks, people were covered, the vehicles, cars,
and everything were just covered with this dust.
The picture of the woman, of Marcy Borders,
I took into the, she actually came into
the lobby of the building that I went
into after the first tower had collapsed.
Hi, my name is Marcy Borders.
I'm from Bayonne, New Jersey.
I became famous from working in the North Tower on the 81st floor.
My image is known all over the world as the Dust Queen.
The morning of 9-11, my supervisor had
thought maybe a small jet plane might have
nipped us, but at that time we had no idea what was going on.
So then I began to panic, you know, so they sat me down, told me to
relax, take deep breaths, but the way the
building was shaking, it was just, I couldn't sit there.
You know, you just heard people screaming stay
away from the glass, stay away from the glass.
You saw injured, I saw people with objects in them, burnt skulls.
It was crazy compared to what I just left.
My stairwell was normal.
That's when you just hear firemen screaming run and don't look back.
Then I took chase, you know, from this
cloud of dust, this smoke that's just following
me, and once it caught me, it threw me on my hands and my knees.
Every time I inhaled, my mouth just filled up with it.
I was choking.
I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.
I was just saying to myself and saying out loud that I didn't want to die,
I didn't want to die.
And a stranger, I remember him clearly saying he didn't have his shirt on.
And he grabbed me, and, you know, with so much going on, I was kind of
afraid of him.
So I was asking him, what are you going to do?
Where are you taking me?
What are you going to do?
And he was like, to safety.
I guess that's where this picture was taken,
and I'm known all over as the Dust Lady.
We're used to big building fires and disasters
like airplane crashes, but this seemed like something
that was way beyond what any of us had ever seen.
It's really an honor, I think, to have the photographs in the museum there.
The 2 pictures, the one of Morrissey and
Ed, got a pretty huge amount of media attention.
I was pretty surprised, and I think after
a while I realized that they're pictures of
people, and I think that a lot of
people could identify with these 2 individuals, the
struggle that they were going through to make it through the day.
I think that's probably maybe one of the
reasons that the pictures themselves became fairly well
- known and well-used.
The site of the New York City attacks
is now home to One World Trade Center,
the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
Plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center began
in July 2002 under the guidance of the
Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
The process was marked by debates among the
public, architects, and political leaders about what the
New World Trade Center should represent.
With so much significance tied to the project, it had to be just right.
Completed in 2014, the inspiring structure stands as
a powerful symbol of resilience in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
Surrounding 2 vast memorial pools, situated where the
Twin Towers once stood, are bronze panels etched
with the names of every person who lost their life in the attacks.
Nearby, the Survivor Tree, a calorie-pair tree
that miraculously withstood the devastation at Ground Zero,
thrives as a living testament to strength and recovery.
Every year, seedlings from this tree are gifted
by the 9-11 Memorial to communities affected
by their own tragedies, spreading hope and resilience far and wide.
For those who lived through it, the memory
of that Tuesday morning remains vivid.
People remember exactly where they were when news
broke that an airplane had struck one of the Twin Towers.
It was a defining moment that brought Americans
closer, as neighbors became like family, stepping up
to donate time, money, and resources to aid those affected by the disaster.
Even after all these years, the events of
9-11 remain etched in our hearts, a
reminder of both the fragility of life and
the enduring strength of the human spirit.