Marguerite

Rehders Historical Inquiry Paper 9/11/01: A Day NYC Wont Forget.

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There is a fire at the World Trade Center. There appears to have been some

sort of explosion there. Were not sure as to the cause of the explosion, although it is said that there has been a commercial plane crash. This was the first news report on what was unknowingly about to become the largest terrorist attack on American soil in the United States history (Short 1.) On the morning of September 11th, 2001, nineteen members of a terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda hijacked four separate airplanes in airports across the U.S. These commercial airline flights were turned into missiles targeting major American landmarks; two out of the four planes were crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in NYC. These vicious attacks not only killed every single person aboard the planes and those on the floors of impact, but also caused the towers to fall to the ground, taking the lives of hundreds more, jacking the total number of casualties up to roughly 3,000 innocent lives. At 7:59 a.m. on September 11th, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 left

Bostons Logan International Airport scheduled to be arriving later that day in Los Angeles. Instead, somewhere around 8:15 a.m. the plane containing 92 passengers was hijacked. It was not until 8:37 a.m. that Air Traffic Control was made aware of the hijacking and contacted the military (National Museum 1.) Six minutes later, at

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8:43 a.m., Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower (Tower 1) of the World Trade Center, instantly killing everyone aboard and killing hundreds of workers amongst the 92nd-98th floors (National Museum 1.) Being that the impact of the plane crash in the North tower destroyed all emergency evacuation stairwells, nobody trapped on or above these floors of impact stood a chance at escaping (Wetheimer 1.) Their only options were to burn alive, wait for the building to collapse, or jump. Fourteen people trapped in Stairwell B of the North Tower miraculously survived the collapse of the building; other than that, no survivors. It was unknown to everyone in the buildings and surrounding area exactly what had happened, weather or not it was intentional, or what to do next. Within seconds of the crash, the Fire Department of NYC had dispatched units to the World Trade Center, and Port Authority officials on- site started helping people out of the stricken Tower. Within one minute of the first plane crash, Port Authority officers from the headquarters in New Jersey were being dispatched to send more units to the scene. At 8:50 a.m., while visiting an elementary school in Florida, President Bush is alerted of the plane crash (National Museum 3.) At 8:14 a.m., United Airline Flight 175 departed from Logan Airport, fifteen

minutes behind its scheduled time (Short 2.) Had there been no delay, the Twin Tower planes would have taken off together and crashed around the exact same time, removing speculation after the first crash as to weather or not it was an accident, potentially saving hundreds of lives. Instead, at 8:55 a.m., Port Authority officials in the South Tower of the World Trade Center directed staff inside the building to remain where they were and continue with their work.1 At 9:03 a.m.,

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Flight 175 was steered into the 77th-85th floors of the South Tower, killing hundreds more. Civilians, residents, tourists and workers all watched in horror as chunks of debris and smoke engulfed the second building, confirming what we all feared; this was indeed a terrorist attack. One stairwell that was not severed by the plane crash allows up to 20 people above escape (Wetheimer 1.) At 9:05 a.m., President Bush is informed of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center. By 9:10 a.m., the response from the NYPD and FDNY was overwhelming, sending thousands of police officials and hundreds of firefighters to the scene to promote evacuation. At 9:59 a.m., fifty-three minutes after the crash of Flight 175, the South

Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed to the ground. The total time of the collapse took ten long seconds (Short 1.) Approximately six hundred people, including port authority officials, firefighters, workers, civilians and tourists, were killed in the fall of this tower. About half an hour later, at 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed as well, nearly two hours after the initial crash of Flight 11. Approximately 1,400 people were killed in the fall of this tower (Short 1.) At 11:02 a.m., Mayor Rudy Giuliani ordered the evacuation of over one

million people from lower Manhattan (Herrup 2.) Being that every tunnel, bridge, airport, and train station in New York, New Jersey and surrounding areas were shut down after the attacks, the only form of evacuation was by foot or by boat.2 One million workers, residents, and tourists all fled in a panic from the World Trade Center site at once, forcing the City into complete chaos. Nobody knew what was coming next, weather it be another attack, another fallen building, or any other type of disaster. People flocked to the ferries, where phone lines were disconnected and

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made it impossible to contact loved ones to let them know you were okay (Rehders.) Instead, families at home were forced to replay the attacks on the news and pray that their loved ones would come home safely. For many, they found by the end of the day that these wishes were not going to come true. Most of those who fled the North and South towers before they collapsed found themselves blocks away on a ferry, watching in terror as the buildings crumbled at free fall speed, killing co-workers, family, and friends. The ferries were like zoos. Everywhere you looked, people were screaming in horror, shrieking out in agony, and crying from disbelief (Rehders.) People were embracing one another, comforting one another, doing the best they could to maintain faith that nobody they knew or loved was beneath that rubble.3 No information on the attacks was known yet, our nation was clueless, all we could do was watch the replays of the attacks over and over on our television screens and in our minds. At 5:20 p.m., hours after the initial attacks, Building 7 of the World Trade Center fell4 (National Museum 4.) By a stroke of luck, none of the thousands of rescue workers who had come into the city from around the nation or nearby civilians were hurt or killed from this collapse. What it did do was destroy more nearby homes and smaller businesses. It was demoralizing to remaining rescue workers who were trying and hoping to find remaining survivors. The overall impact that 9/11 has had on this country is unimaginable. The loss of human loss was severe, and devastating. Though it took place eleven long years ago, the day of September 11th, 2001 is one that still stirs up emotion in anyone who is asked to recall just where they were and what they were doing on

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that very tragic morning. Many people cannot get the haunting image of the planes striking out of their minds, and let it prevent them from ever flying on an airplane again.5 The buildings are gone along with thousands of innocent lives, but the empowering anger, confusion and sense of loss remains, and most likely always will.
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1 Their announcement went as follows, Your attention, please, ladies and gentlemen. Building 2 is secure. There is no need to evacuate Building 2. If you are in the midst of evacuation, you may use the re-entry doors and the elevators to return to your office. Repeat, Building 2 is secure. (National Museum 6.) 2 On 9/11/01, boats flocking in from across the Northeast evacuated 500,000 people stuck on Manhattan Island in the wake of all trains and bridges being shut down after the collapse of the World Trade Center. This was the largest evacuation by boat in history (Herrup 1.) 3 Over two thousand people were alive inside the towers when they collapsed. Only twenty people were pulled out of the rubble alive. 4 Because lower Manhattan's waterlines have been compromised, and FDNY cannot get water to the flames, World Trade Center Building 7 collapses after burning for hours. (National Museum 6.) 5 Susan Schmidt, owner of a marketing company in NYC, stated this just last month. "The intensity of thinking about it, and confronting the thought of it, still is very uncomfortable and I didn't know anyone who was killed or injured. It was a defining moment for how Americans define tragedy." Work Cited: Herrup, Katharine. "Boatlifters: The Unknown Story of 9/11 | Journalist Profile | Reuters.com." Analysis & Opinion | Reuters. 09 Sept. 2011. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://blogs.reuters.com/katharine-herrup/2011/09/09/boatlifters-the- unknown-story-of-911/>. I will be able to pull useful information regarding actual accounts from people who were on the ferries entering then leaving NYC on the morning of 9/11. My concept is about two people who meet on one of the ferries leaving NYC after the attacks. After reading the articles on this website and

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gathering more information on what it was like to actually be on one of those ferries rescuing people from the City, I will have a better perspective on the circumstances. This information will definitely be extremely useful in my research and down the line it will help me develop my characters. "National September 11 Memorial & Museum." National September 11 Memorial & Museum World Trade Center Memorial. 9/11 Memorial Museum. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.911memorial.org/interactive-911-timeline>.This website contains an accurate chronological order of events that took place on the day of September 11th, 2001. I will need this information in order for my concept and story to be realistic, the time of the attacks and all of the separate chaos going on at once is extremely important for my concept. There were so many different occurrences that morning that it is important to remember the knowledge we have of those instances now and the knowledge that everyone had at the time on 9/11, which was very little. Rehders, Kenneth. Personal Interview. 14 February, 2012. My father worked in the World Trade Center for thirty years when he witnessed the 9/11 attacks firsthand on that dreadful day. He was in the South Tower when the first plane hit and was forced to evacuate to the ferries alongside half a million other people. He watched in horror as the second plane crashed into his place of work and killed people he had worked with and known for decades. I believe interviewing him and gaining firsthand knowledge and experiences from somebody who was actually there when the attacks happened is extremely beneficial to me when it comes to understanding the true chaos of NYC on that day. I have a much better perspective of an order of events, of what the attacks looked like, the reaction of the people, and what it was like to have to evacuate. This will be extremely helpful for my concept which revolves around two people that meet on a ferry after having to evacuate NYC. Short, Robert. "United We Stand." September 11, 2001 - September112001.com. Web. 14 Feb. 2012. <http://www.september112001.com/>.This site contains any information you could imagine on 9/11 including pictures, articles from Magazines and newspapers and other important facts. Basically anything I want to know, from the names of every victim to the ferry schedules and bus schedules on the day of September 11th, 2001, can be found here. This is a reliable source as well being that it is the official 9/11 memorial site. I can incorporate lots of information from this website into my research inquiry paper. Wetheimer, David. "NetWert Ideapad." Netwert.com. Sept. 2001. Web. 10 Feb. 2012. <http://www.netwert.com/ideapad/sep11_adam.html>.This is a firsthand account from a man who was in Tower 2 when the planes hit, who then ran out of the buildings toward the harbor where the ferries were. I will use this toward my

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research because this account will help me gain a better perspective of what the impact was like right when the first plane hit, then the second plane, what it was like to escape the building, what the streets must have looked like, what it must have been like trying to get to the ferry, and what the impact must have sounded and looked like once the towers fell.