World Trade Center: September 11, 2001
My photographs from that day.
I arrived at our midtown office minutes after the second 767 had smashed into WTC2. As chance would have it I had my camera with me as I was due to be covering and award ceremony later on. There have been many images shown from that day. These pictures perhaps give a slightly different perspective: horror of those looking-on as the first tower falls; confusion and disbelief on the streets; finally the eerie stillness as the debris settles in Lower Manhattan.
The first shots are from our midtown office looking south to the twin towers. After the first tower came down I walked up 6th to Central Park, down Broadway to Times Square, along 42nd to Grand Central then south down 1st Ave. The NYPD had cordoned off the area south of Canal St/Manhattan Bridge but somehow - partly by chance, partly by design - I found myself behind the line. After this I rather lost track of exactly where I was, so I kept going south with the disaster scene on my right. Eventually I ended up about 2-3 blocks to the east of "ground zero" in the Financial District.
As far as timings go, I am a little hazy too. The first ones are obvious from the known chain of events. I was at Grand Central at about 1.30 and I guess it took an hour to get to Canal Street from there. Once I was below Canal, I lost track of exactly what time it was, or how long I was there, although it must have been 2 or 3 hours. When the smoke and dust had become too much for me - and virtually trashed my camera - I made my way to Battery Park where the Staten Island Ferry was still taking people away and shipping in relief fire crews. During the crossing to Staten Island another vast cloud of debris went up, which I belive to be the collapse of WTC7 at 5.20pm.
The pictures themselves are not masterpieces, but I think they form an interesting document of that sad day.
Ben Moor
New York, September 2001