PHOTOS: NYC, SEPTEMBER 2001

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, I decided to share these previously unpublished photos I took during my visit to New York a couple of days after that tragic day. As a former New Yorker (1992-2000) who was in Washington DC at the time, I was compelled to get myself to Manhattan to see the devastation with my own eyes.

These are the pictures from that visit.
(After the jump)


Click on each picture to get a full size version.

Our walk began midtown, and right away I could tell that that iconic view had forever been changed.

We made a stop at Union Square, one of the places in which a makeshift memorial had appeared. The first photo above is also from Union Square.

This photo is of a mini "twin towers" someone had built using souvenir license plates.

"Stop the Hate." Another "twin towers" replica at Union Square. This one had some words from the Dalai Lama.

More Union Square...

Another "twin towers" replica at Union Square. Notice, someone had scribbled "no war, peace" on the base of the statue in the background. If only we knew what was to come in the next decade.

More Union Square...

Many many many candles.

Remembering the first responders.

More Union Square...

We continued our walk until we arrived at 100 Duane Street, the home of Engine 7 Ladder Company 1. Though they were the first to arrive, all of the firefighters from Engine 7 escaped with their lives.

Engine 7's 9/11 story is notable, by the way, because they were on that day (and for several months prior) being filmed as the subject of a documentary, whose cameras were one of only three known to have captured that first plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Apparently, there is now a permanent plaque that honors Engine 7's 100 years of service to the city (at this location), in place of these hand-written tributes.

So, after that moving stop, it was time to make our way southward.

The closer we got, the more noticable the gaping hole in the skyline.

Finally, from a distance, the first signs of wreckage began to be visible.

Forever changed.

Finally, we took the subway back uptown and I took these pictures at Times Square station. There was not one empty wall.

In the decade since, I have stayed away from lower Manhattan - and away from NYC in general, vowing to return only after construction of the new World Trade Center is completed. 

I look forward to that day.