Original subtitles

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!

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, 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.