Ten years ago this week, I was celebrating my 16th birthday with Heather and her friend Ashley in NYC. My parents had surprised me with a last minute trip to the Big Apple. So I took off the first week of school and Heather left behind her baby girl Elena with her husband and we set off for the trip of a lifetime.There are so many things I remember of my trip to NYC. We had so much fun exploring the vast cityscape. So many memories from that trip. And so many memories of that day, September 11, 2001.
I was sitting in the cafeteria with my good friend Joanna when we heard the news. It was my first day back to school. We were told that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. It was around 9 am. All the TVs were on in the cafeteria with the news stations showing the LIVE images of the crash. We watched the second plane crash into the 2nd World Trade Center. At this point, the consensus was that this was a terrorist act and not an issue with air traffic controllers. I remember thinking as I watched the video over and over again that this day would change the course of history. Lives would forever be altered.
A couple nights ago we watched the special called 9/11- Ten Years Later, hosted by Robert de Niro. Two French cameramen were filming a documentary of a NYC fireman whose fire station is blocks away from the Twin Towers. On September 11, 2001 around 8:30 am they are notified of a gas leak on a street several blocks away. As the firemen work to clean up the leak, they hear a loud airplane overhead. They watch as the plane crashes into the first Tower. It’s incredible that it was captured on film. It was purely by chance that this video exists. You see firemen rushing to the first Tower after its hit and chaos ensues as a multitude of fire departments show up on the scene and begin to organize themselves and form a command center in the lobby. Almost as soon as the firemen reach the building they hear the heartbreaking sound of bodies hitting the ground. You see Father Mychal Judge praying out-loud as the firemen learn that the elevators are out of service. They’ll have to walk up at least 78 flights of stairs with 60 lbs of gear on their backs to reach ‘the fire’.
With the collapse of the first Tower comes the first confirmed death of 9/11, Father Mychal Judge. His body being carried away from the scene by firemen is a picture I’ve seen numerous times. I’m sure you have too. It was so surreal to watch this 9/11 special and connect the dots.
This film is only a tiny glimpse into what happened at the Twin Towers that day. It tells the story of one fire station, later called The Miracle House. Most of the footage is captured in the main lobby of the first Tower, far away from the chaotic inferno occurring above the 78th floor. Watching the amateur video makes me wonder about the thousands and thousands of untold stories from that day.
Imagine the stories of the passengers on those two airplanes that deliberately crashed into the Twin Towers. Imagine the stories of the workers above the 78th floor. Trying to escape. Hanging out of the windows. Imagine the stories of the passengers on Flight 93. Standing together in unity they overtook the hijackers. Imagine the stories of the passengers on Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon. These are the untold stories of September 11, 2001.
They are not forgotten, ten years later.
The picture above was taken from Ellis Island. The New York City skyline is incredible.
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