One of the towers of the World Trade Center collapses on September 11. 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. I just assumed it was a terrible accident. It was on her left, flying over the Statue of Liberty and heading right for Manhattan. 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It represents the extraordinary courage our first responders showed that day, and that we can never forget that thousands of innocent people were murdered that day in the most horrific way imaginable, said Thomas E. Franklin, who was a staff photographer at the Bergen Record newspaper. Take a look in the gallery above. I was stunned to see that tower two had collapsed. To me, this image represents a moment when our country, in the aftermath of an attack on our soil, literally came through the darkness to find a renewed sense of common ground and patriotism, he said. "Here I'm looking up and down the East Coast to see if I can see anything else. It, too, was shut down. Do I still have a job? Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 carrying 92 people, speared into the 110-story north tower. Thoughts flooded through my mind like, how many people just lost their life? I turned on CNN. When I looked at New York City across the river, I noticed that among the wreckage, debris and smoke, the Statue of Liberty stood out on the skyline, holding her lighted torch high.. I think I collapsed for a couple of hours, and then one of the guys that worked for me picked me up and we headed to Philadelphia, where my company had a smaller office. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. The delis entrance is seen in the background. These are some of the photos that have come to define that tragic day in 2001, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Eventually the building stabilized. Photo Then there was another loud bang. Shanken was drawn to the scene because of its irony: a welcome sign during an evacuation. They told me that a lady living in Brooklyn found a Ruling Letter that I had signed in her backyard the day after 9/11. WebAP Images Completed in 1973, the original World Trade Center complex was dubbed a "dream come true" by Governor Nelson Rockefeller at the official ribbon cutting ceremony The publication of this photo, taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, was not received well by everyone. I was only out of the subway a few minutes, trying to negotiate police barriers, when someone shouted The towers are coming down! she recalled. My company had offices on the 77th and 78th floors. Picture from inside the World Trade Center during the attack. 2023 Getty Images. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. Inside, he was surprised to discover a trove of never My mother-in-law was there with my daughters, but my wife was still trying to make her way home. 2023 Getty Images. Pictures, as always, told more than 1,000 words. My route took me up West Broadway. Years later, One World Trade stands in its place. She worked in the building and had gotten out safely. 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 It was a bright, beautiful morning, and you could see seemingly forever out the floor to ceiling windows of the building. That smell was in my nose and the taste of it in my mouth for weeks afterwards.. Suzanne Plunkett was on the scene taking photos for the Associated Press. 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. I pulled up my T-shirt to cover my face. After dark, Loh could see two columns of smoke rising from the wreckage, exactly where the Twin Towers had stood earlier. The sense of security was a very important issue for my family, he said. McGraw was heading to a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery when he saw the crash, according to the Arlington Catholic Herald. Then I saw car lights blinking and realized where I was.. Inside, he was surprised to discover a trove of never-before-seen photos captured during the infamous September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers in 2001. While wed spoken earlier and she knew I was O.K., that was before the second plane hit WTC2. Check out Military.com's original video series today. Still, I could not put one and one together and make the connection that a jetliner had just crashed into the building only a few feet above my head and split open, spilling the contents of its fuel tanks into the building core. We had no idea what had happened. WebThe building management of 7 World Trade Center then decided to open the emergency exits to let everyone outside. Over 2,606 people were killed in and around the World Trade Center in the attacks. Ill always remember the dedication my employees had to their job and to the Customs Service in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. I mentioned previously I was definitely in some form of shock at that time and not thinking rationally. Was everything lost? Many of my co-workers began to leave the building immediately after the plane hit. On Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers caught U.S. authorities by surprise with a bold attack on New York City's World Trade Center. He remembers how beautiful the morning was just before tragedy struck. Brett Roegiers, Sandra Stevenson and Bernadette Tuazon. Plunkett felt like she was on autopilot as chaos unfolded all around her. We slowly made our way down the 77 flights of stairs. Official websites use .gov These photos capture one of the most influential events in human history, Enea writes. One of my employees then noticed that some debris had fallen from above right past my window. Standing right Web(Photo: Tom Hannigan/Flickr) This piece originally appeared on Quora: What did it feel like to be inside the World Trade Center at the time of the 9/11 attacks? I never saw so many different types of fire fighting vehicles. Below are steps you can take in order to whitelist Observer.com on your browser: Click the AdBlock button on your browser and select Don't run on pages on this domain. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider 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. First responders assist people in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Centers collapse. [United Airlines Flight 175 flied low towards the south Tower of the WTC, shortly before alamming into the structure. A lot of people say, 'Well, I don't want to look at that.' Smoke was pouring out, and while I dont recall seeing much in the way of flames, it was clear that there was a raging fire going on inside the building. 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. People look back at the fire where the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. (Photo: Reuters)], On Sptember 11, American Airlines Flight 175 closes in on World Trade Center Tower 2 in New York, just before impact. At some point I saw people appear at the edge of the gaping hole. When the South Tower started to collapse, she ran behind the parked car on the left side of this photo. The other two passenger jets were directed at the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York. I could tell that he had been killed, but it profoundly struck me that all these men from various agencies were doing their best to preserve his body. A minute later, Honda saw Borders and snapped a photo. They had a full set of gear on, and they looked weary and frightened, yet they continued up past us. The first step was to contact all employees who worked at the World Trade Center to make sure everyone evacuated safely. One woman had a severe laceration on her arm. Women react as they witness the collapse of the World Trade Centers South Tower, about a half-mile away on Canal Street. Four airplanes were hijacked by Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, with one crashing into the Pentagon in Washington and another in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Eventually we exited the stairwell and made our way into the mall connecting the WTC complex. I could see the fearless intensity in their faces. The WTC towers were clearly visible from the trading floor of her firm. Word eventually filtered through the crowd that WTC2, where my office resided, had just fallen. WebHere are some of the haunting photos of the post tragedy photos from September 11 attack that sum up the tragedy. Select from premium World Trade Center Attacks of the highest quality. (Photo: Reuters), The damaged area of the Pentagon building, where a commercial jetliner slammed into it September 11, is seen in the early morning at sunrise with the U.S. Capitol Building in the background. Where will we go? I didnt realize how frightened I had been until I pulled my phone from my waist pack to try to call her son for her and my hand was shaking nearly uncontrollably.. 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. 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. 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. And then it got shattered.. Lederhandler, a renowned photographer who also photographed D-Day in 1944, died in 2010 at the age of 92. 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. Rescue workers move the body of the Rev. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there and everywhere else. Looking for U.S. government information and services? 2,606 of the victims came from the World Trade Center and the surrounding area, while a further 125 were killed at the That was the phrase I kept saying to them one after another, and more than once people responded affirmatively, Yes, yes. . I was near an office building, and a police officer was pulling people in to get them out of danger. Bush climbed atop a pile of rubble as he used a megaphone to address a large gathering of people. The President excused himself a few minutes later and left the classroom. A makeshift altar, constructed for a worship service, overlooks the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93, on Sept. 16, 2001 in Shanksville, Pa. He believes some people react negatively because they can see themselves in that similar predicament. Its thought that upwards of 200 people either fell or jumped to their deaths after the planes hit the towers. I immediately put the TV on to see the latest developments. 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pictures inside world trade center during attack