(bold music) - [Announcer] All news all the time.

This is 1010 Winds.

You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world.

- [Reporter] Good morning.

64 degrees at eight o'clock.

It's Tuesday, September 11th.

I'm Lee Harris.

Here's what's happening.

It's primary day and the polls are open in New York City.

- September 11th.

Everybody knows where they were on that day.

I was, started the day at home up in Rockland County.

Drove down to the city with my wife, Deb, and it was just a beautiful, beautiful Tuesday morning.

- [Radio Host] Uptown FDR Drive is backed up from the Brooklyn Bridge to Houston Street with an accident blocking two lanes.

Another accident further north and the 70s is cleared.

(gentle music) - Came to the city.

Deb was working at Beth Israel Hospital in the emergency department as a social worker and my office was at 162 5th Avenue.

A little television post-production and production company.

- [Reporter] It's not like this is any big surprise, but anything Michael Jordan does makes big news and this morning, it appears at age 38, he indeed will be coming out of retirement again.

- [Reporter 2] What's up with Whitney Houston?

Certainly not her weight.

The painfully skinny singer was a no show at Michael Jackson's anniversary concert last night.

A friend says, "Blame it on drug abuse."

- Into the office.

My sister Patty calls and is like, "Hey, did you hear what happened to the Trade Center?

A plane crashed into it."

I'm like, "No."

Like, wow.

(intense music) - [Announcer] Breaking news now on 1010 Winds.

- [Reporter] This just into our news room, a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

They just played the tape again.

It is horrific.

A second plane the size of a passenger jet flying into the second tower of the, of the World Trade Center.

(gentle music) (sirens wail) - You know, I've always had a camera.

There was something about it, you know, capturing moments.

And, from still cameras to video cameras.

And I always wanted to learn, to know what was going on, to ask questions.

That's one of the things I think I love most about this industry and this business of television, documentary filmmaking is that we get to share other people's stories through our lens.

As I'm walking down, I just started asking people what did they think was happening?

I had this camera and I felt like I had to capture what was unfolding in front of us.

(sirens wail) (gentle music) I was very conflicted about filming.

From an ethics standpoint, I was like going, "Is this right?

Is this wrong?"

But I was like, there was something in me that just said, you know, "You just, this is what you do, just do it, film it, just go, go, go."

And I began my, my walk down 5th Avenue, not knowing how that, that day was going to unfold.

What happened?

- What?

I don't know.

Your guess is as good as mine.

- Two airbuses evidently were taken from LaGuardia?

Yeah.

Yeah.

My father's got ABC on and he said that they've got footage of the airplane actually hitting, hitting the towers.

- [Patrick] Wow.

- And they said that there's some, there's a report that they, hi, Dad, sorry.

I know.

A lot of the cell phone towers are on the World Trade Center.

That's why this keeps cutting out.

Some people don't have any service.

What do they know about LaGuardia?

- [Patrick] You guys know what happened?

- Hm?

- [Patrick] You know what happened?

- Two planes crash in.

- Two hijack planes.

- [Patrick] Really?

- Yep.

- [Patrick] You guys see it?

- Huh?

- [Patrick] Did you guys see it?

(interviewee speaks indistinctly) What do you think happened?

- Hijack plane, what you can do?

- [Patrick] Yeah.

Who do you think did it?

- Suicide bomb, but yeah.

- [Patrick] How's it make you feel?

- Terrible.

Like, I've never seen something like it.

- I know, I got a feeling that's very, like, surreal.

I don't know how to feel.

(gentle music) (crowd murmurs) Wow, that's pretty crazy.

I haven't been down here in a while.

This is 5th Avenue.

We're coming up at 162 5th.

Actually, I started working down here 28 years ago.

Yep, but this is where I met Amy and we started our walk down, talking about what was happening way down there on 5th Avenue.

You could see the buildings clear as day back then.

Obviously, right now, the Freedom Tower is a little adjacent, I guess.

Actually, in all these years, I've never been to Ground Zero since 9/11.

Kinda crazy.

But this, right on this street, I mean, behind me, it was just covered with people, as you saw, just looking down 5th wondering what the hell was going on.

(gentle music) You don't notice change as you live it, so when we look back at the video, what the streets looked like.

- [Reporter 3] That is now being evacuated so this phone call will be cut short.

All of the public buildings, as you've heard probably on your news, all of our rails and all of our bridges have been closed.

The debris is blocks from the World Trade Center as it exists right now.

Literally as we're speaking, people are either jumping out of the buildings from 60, 70, 80, 90th floors.

- Whoa!

- [Bystander] Oh, shit.

- Holy shit!

People are jumping out of the building from the 80th floor!

- [Bystander] Holy shit!

- People are jumping out of the building from the 80th floor!

Whoa.

Is this gonna be on TV or something?

- [Reporter 4] As many as 50 and more were on board one of the planes that crashed, so- - [Reporter 3] Oh, so that means that that's true.

- That had to be a hijack!

50 people were on board.

- [Reporter 3] But that indicates a possibility of a hijack.

- [Reporter 4] The FBI has said that they were investigating a possible hijacking- - Holy Christ.

- [Reporter 4] Just before the crash occurred, so that may be, you know, part of the story there.

- [Reporter 3] And it looked to me, watching the video of the second plane, it looked to me that that was a 737 or at least a comparable size to a 737 aircraft.

- 737.

- [Reporter 5] And it was moving at at least 300 miles an hour when it hit the building.

Now you have to believe- - That had to be the explosion we saw.

- [Reporter 3] But somebody might've gotten a shot at that thing so we could identify it because we don't know if that was an airliner, we don't know, all we saw were a distant shot of it hitting the second tower.

- [Bystander 2] That is horrible.

People jumping out of the freakin' windows.

- [Reporter 3] What was on at least the second plane, the one that we saw.

- [Reporter 5] Well, it's so serious that you heard Commissioner Jerry Cammarata, they're abandoning the emergency service that has been set up exactly for these kinds of emergencies because of this danger that may come their way and to others who are in nearby buildings surrounding the World Trade Center.

- [Reporter 4] We just got a report of unidentified sources as well saying that an American Airlines 767 from Boston, that was coming in from Boston, was the plane but again, they're unidentified sources.

The second plane, that is the second plane that came in and slammed into one of the towers.

(unidentified speaking on walkie-talkie) (sirens wailing) - All you saw was a huge explosion just now.

Huge explosion.

Part of the plane is, actually fell inside the building.

The other part of the plane went through the building and some of the plane exploded and fell onto the street.

- And there was a hole there and the second building was fine.

And then 15 minutes later.

(horn blares) - Get a good view way down there?

- [Patrick] Horrible view, yeah.

- See that up close?

Hey, that's some hole in there.

I built that too.

I helped build that in the '70s.

- [Patrick] Oh yeah?

- [Bystander 3] '60s and '70s, yeah.

I was one of the carpenters that worked on it though.

That's the only way they were gonna get to that building.

(sirens wailing) (truck rumbles) - I just heard right here.

Subways are down.

- [Bystander 4] The airports are closed.

- Yeah.

Everything's down.

- [Bystander 4] How are they able to get back?

- The freight's closed.

That's it.

I was told the security of the building's main concern.

- I tell you one thing, you know, this kills, you know, your heart, you know what?

But if it is really sabotage.

- It is!

- It's nonsense for all, you know, we have to do something about it, you know?

- What are you gonna do?

- [Patrick] What do you think, it's like the bombing in Pearl Harbor.

- What?

- [Patrick] It's like the bombing.

- Yeah.

Yeah, the same thing.

- [Patrick] Have you guys ever seen anything like this?

- Of course.

Unfortunately, the first thing that comes to your mind is one thing.

Arabs.

Unfortunately.

Maybe it's unfair, you know what they say, but that Bin Laden.

- Bin Laden, Bin Laden.

You know how many lives?

- [Bystander 5] Those people didn't have a chance.

- [Bystander 4] Not a fighting chance.

- And I'll tell you one thing.

It was 8:48 that there was, you know, a lot of people didn't get a chance to go.

- Oh, when that steel gets hot enough, it'll start caving under its own weight.

(horns blaring) - Something with a missile at the Woolworth Building.

Where's the Woolworth Building?

- [Bystander 6] There's also downtown.

- Down there too?

They were saying before the second one impacted, that a possible missile was fired at the Woolworth Building.

(bystander speaks indistinctly) - I haven't heard anything yet.

But you know, there gotta be people trapped on them other floors though.

- [Reporter 6] The fire that is being reported at this hour at the Pentagon.

Associated Press reporter saying that he saw the tail end of a large airliner plunge into the building.

Of course, this is essentially what happened at the World Trade Center.

Both towers hit by aircraft this morning.

- [Bystander 7] Somebody hit the Pentagon.

- [Patrick] What?

Something hit the Pentagon?

- Airliner hit the Pentagon.

Or near it.

- [Patrick] Oh my god.

That's crazy.

- Five minutes ago, ten minutes ago?

- [Patrick] They just say the Pentagon was also hit?

- The Pentagon was also hit.

- [Reporter 6] The West Wing of the White House has been evacuated as a possible precaution as well.

President Bush was not there when all of this occurred.

He was in Sarasota, Florida where he made this remark.

- [President Bush] Today, we've had a national tragedy.

Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country.

- [Patrick] You guys hear the Pentagon and the White House?

- Yeah, I just reported it.

- [Patrick] You got any picture on there or anything?

- It's high-quality HDTV.

- [Patrick] I'm just, I work on the streets here and I just figured I'd run out and take some images.

- All right.

- [Patrick] What do you think?

- It's just a terrible act.

It's shameful, it's really disturbing and I feel for the people who are in this building as we watch the floors burn one by one.

You know, I'm picturing them trying to escape and run down the stairs and sort of what's gonna happen next.

We just heard the Pentagon was hit by an airplane and- - [Patrick] How does it make you feel?

Like, do you- - Awful.

I have just this pit in my stomach.

- Oh.

What happened up there?

- [Patrick] Two planes crashed into the Trade Center.

Plane crashed also in the Pentagon and the White House.

- Plane also?

- [Patrick] Crashed into the Pentagon and the White House.

- Oh, they crash into that?

At the same time?

Oh my god.

There were four planes.

- [Patrick] You got it, man.

Four freakin' planes.

- Four freakin' planes, and- - [Patrick] Well, there could be more down there.

That's what I've heard on the radio.

- What about plane, what about the planes?

Fell down?

Fell down?

(bystanders speaking indistinctly) - [Reporter 7] Very serious situation underway here in the city this morning.

- [Patrick] What are you thinking, man?

- It's pretty unreal.

- [Patrick] You know about the Pentagon?

- I just heard about it.

So I guess it's a little taste of the Mid-East.

- [Patrick] What do you think we're gonna do about it?

- Now, that's a frightening thought.

With Bush in office.

(laughs) (horn beeps) - We were watching people jump to their death and my coworker saw how it went through.

We saw how it went through and we were watching people jump to their death.

One and another and another.

- A coworker saw the plane hit the building- - And he thought he saw it initially that it was a missile and then we heard that it was an airplane and then, like, eight, ten minutes later, a second one.

And that's how you... And all those people above it?

They're gone too.

This is just the beginning.

- Just watch from here.

We're just, like, in a daze.

Hey.

- [Reporter 8] Here live outside of the city for all the entire, as you can imagine, it is absolute chaos here.

The entire city has come to a standstill.

Everyone just standing, looking at the smoke pouring out of the World Trade Center at this moment.

- [Reporter 9] Word from Washington that the Capitol and the Treasury are being evacuated.

This in addition to the White House and the Pentagon being terribly, having been hit by a plane this morning not unlike the World Trade Center Twin Towers- - [Patrick] What are you thinking, man?

What are you thinking?

- Unbelievable.

I feel like Pearl Harbor happened again.

- [Patrick] I do too, man.

- I feel it's like, speechless.

- [Patrick] How do you feel inside?

- I don't know.

- [Reporter 9] Plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and then saw a second plane crash into the second tower at the World Trade Center.

(tires squeal) - It's not letting me call anybody.

- They're sending everybody home.

(bystander sobs) You okay?

- Who do you know that was there?

[Bystander 8] Nobody, it's just the whole thing.

- Don't even, just turn around and go home.

- I live all the way Uptown.

- Oh, boy.

- [Bystander 9] You gonna be okay?

This is horrible.

- [Patrick] Got a question.

My brother's over at the, what is it, 93 truck.

They're going to send everybody down here, huh?

- I don't know.

- [Patrick] I tell you, man, I don't know, I'm feeling very strange.

Hope my brother doesn't have to go down there.

- Let's hope not.

- Sometimes you don't realize how big a moment you're living in until years later.

We're coming up on Union Square.

Union Square, I used to love hanging out down here.

So we're getting close to where I was when the first tower went down.

Oh my god.

- [Bystander 10] Oh, snap!

Oh, shit!

Oh my god!

- [Patrick] Oh my god.

(crowd shouting) Oh my god.

Can I hear your radio?

Can I hear your radio?

Can I listen to your radio?

You see that?

It's down, man.

It's gone.

One of the towers is gone.

(horns beeping) (whistle blares) Oh my god.

(bystander sobs) (bystander sobs) Oh my god.

(bystander speaks foreign language) What's happening?

- [Bystander 11] Oh my god.

- There's people so far away from home.

- They hit the Pentagon.

That's the serious thing.

I mean... (sirens wailing) (crowd chatters) (horn blares) (sirens wail) (gentle music) (horns beep) - When that first tower collapsed, it's unimaginable to think about how it was inside that building, inside those buildings.

25 years and you know, it can feel like yesterday.

You know, right then, I knew nothing was ever gonna be the same.

- Nuclear weapons, you know what I'm saying?

- [Bystander 12] The only superpower left in the United States, left in the world, right?

Let's attack it.

- The White House, I was told, was hit too.

I don't know.

This is unreal.

And you wonder how quickly could they have gotten those people out?

'Cause it did happen a half hour ago or so.

- [Bystander 12] Thank God some people got out.

- But on the ground.

- [Bystander 12] You know, was it all the buildings?

(bystander sobs) - I just, I see it.

I can see it from here, but at least I'm not involved with anything.

- Go out of your way to get to where you gotta go.

- Well, you, well, not you.

I'm talkin' 'bout her.

- I heard some others talk about the Pentagon, I said, "Goodbye!"

- Something else, we saw a cloud of white smoke as it was coming up 5th Avenue.

I don't know if that was, they fell.

- And the Pentagon also now.

- It's shady, shady, shady.

- I heard it was too damn low when shit hit the first building and then by the time I got to 54, my building, the other one went off.

- [Bystander 13] You work at the World Trade Center?

- No, I work, I can see it from where my office is at.

I'm (indistinct) on Chamber Street.

I can't find, I heard, I said, "Where is that plane so low?"

- [Bystander 13] My coworker didn't come in because she's stuck on the train with a lot of people that didn't come in yet.

- They closed down the bridges and they've closed, they've closed all the tunnels and all the bridges.

(bystander speaks foreign language) - I heard that first one, I said to myself, "Jesus, is that low?"

- Yeah.

- It was low all right.

- We're getting close to where I watched the second tower fall.

It was brutal.

This whole area.

Just was panicked people.

Confused.

Not knowing what was going on.

- Are you making a movie?

- [Patrick] Looks like it.

Where were you?

- I was on the train, I was on the 4 and somehow, I skipped over my stop at Fulton.

I don't know if I didn't notice it or if the train didn't stop, and then I saw this woman crying on the Uptown side and she was in the Trump Center Tower and she saw it.

She saw the helicopter and the other plane crash into the building.

Scared and sad and I'm gonna go give blood somewhere.

(crowd shouting) (crowd screaming) - [Patrick] Oh my god!

(sirens wail) Wasn't an explosion, was it?

- [Bystander 14] I mean, it's bad enough that they hit it but the fact that it collapsed, that's just like taking US flag and just wiping your ass with it.

- Oh my god.

(bystander sobs) - This is the most horrible thing I've ever seen.

- I just hope they could get enough people out of there before that happened.

- I know.

- Did you catch it?

The second one?

They just bombed the Mall five minutes ago.

- [Patrick] They just bombed where?

- The Mall, the Washington Mall and the Supreme Court.

- [Patrick] Oh my god.

- And the Pentagon, yeah, all that.

- [Patrick] We gotta watch out.

We don't, Empire State Building or something.

- Yeah, I mean, (indistinct) can fly fuckin' here.

- Everything's evacuated.

Everything's evacuated right now.

- [Patrick] Oh my god.

I'm freaking out, man.

- Yeah.

Everything's evacuated right now.

They got the Pentagon, they got, they got the Supreme Court in DC.

- [Patrick] They bombed the Supreme Court?

- Supreme Court in DC.

Pentagon, the, the back wings of, the tail-end of the plane smacked into, got into the, what do you call it?

Into the Pentagon, and it blew up.

A 767, they said.

That's what they said so far.

And they're expecting more.

- Information traveled pretty fast back then, but nowhere near as fast as it travels today.

We were all in the dark.

We didn't know what was happening and it was the misinformation that we were hearing, that I was hearing, that, then, I was part of this misinformation.

Sharing stuff that wasn't actually accurate.

Camp David was the Mall, the Supreme Court, all these things were happening, and I became part of this game of telephone in my own way.

And it's documented, that, and I think that confusion of that day, anybody who was on that street can relate to that.

- I can't fathom this.

I mean, I still can't believe.

I see it, but it's very hard to believe.

I mean, the Pentagon was bombed.

- [Bystander 15] There was?

Where?

- That's unbelievable.

- [Bystander 15] So they're saying Chicago was hit too?

Which building?

- I don't know what he said.

- [Bystander 16] I'm hearing there was a car bomb of some sort.

I'm not sure.

- [Bystander 17] They bombed Chicago too?

- I mean, New York, obviously.

It's right on the fuckin' coast.

- Pentagon, Supreme Court, and supposedly there's eight planes that were hijacked and four of them, four or five they've accounted for.

Two here, two DC, one in Detroit or Chicago but there's still two or three more planes that were hijacked.

- [Patrick] How do these fuckers get away with this shit?

- I, who would do it?

Why?

- Man, what's gonna happen after that?

But who?

Where?

- I was on the Manhattan Bridge when the second plane went into the building.

It went directly in and exploded.

- [Bystander 18] Oh, you saw it?

- I saw it.

It was on the Manhattan Bridge.

Our train was stuck, the first tower was on fire, a second big plane, a second big, great plane, commercial airliner came like this and straight into the side of the building and exploded in the second tower.

- You saw it on TV or live?

- No, I saw it.

- He was on the train going across the bridge.

- The Manhattan Bridge, we were stuck there.

- [Patrick] How many people do you think were in that office?

- My, everyone my brother worked with.

My brother's whole company's gone.

He's in LA, thank God.

- [Patrick] He's in LA?

- But I don't know what's going on in LA.

There's not any stock market or anything.

There's nothing.

And Pentagon, it's nothing.

I've been sitting here for an hour and a half, I have no idea what to fuckin' do.

- [Patrick] What do we do?

- I have no idea.

I can't, I wanna get out of Manhattan but I can't go back to Brooklyn.

- [Patrick] You can't go anywhere.

- I can't get outta here.

This is the last place I wanna be.

- We just hairlines away from surviving right now.

It's amazing.

I really don't understand.

Look at that.

The Twin Towers right freakin' there.

(crowd chatters) They said in, what is that?

St.

Vincent Hospital?

They had more than 200 in there already.

- [Patrick] Dead?

- Critical condition.

(sirens wail) - [Patrick] You all right?

- And all of a sudden, another plane come by and it looked, yeah, it looked like it was gonna hit the, the first building, and it looked like it intentionally tried to hit it but it missed and it just clipped the outside of the second building.

It looked like a movie.

(horn honks) - I was zigging and zagging through the different areas.

Try to stay rolling as much as possible.

But again, when you're looking down, you would have seen the towers down that way.

(crowd chatters) - I guess I gotta change tapes.

Sorry.

I've never shot anything like that before.

- [Bystander 19] What did you shoot?

Did you actually get part of them falling down or something?

- Yeah, I got the first building coming down all the way.

- [Bystander 19] Where were you?

- I was standing about five, six blocks up.

There was an explosion out of the left side and it just came all crumbling down.

Worst thing I've ever seen.

- [Patrick] How are you feeling?

I'm feeling horrible right now.

- I don't think there's anything you can say to describe that.

I mean, you know, everybody, I got friends in the financial center.

I don't know, I don't know how many of the buildings were affected around it, you know, when it hit the deck.

Who would know?

Yeah.

I gotta believe that there's 10,000 people dead down there.

Gotta believe that.

At least.

- Easily.

Easily, yeah.

People were hugging and crying over here in the street.

Strangers were hugging and crying.

That's a rare thing in New York City.

Having strangers hug?

- [Patrick] And now there's four more planes still in the air that they don't know where they're going.

Well, what I heard was jets.

- Yeah, there are F-14s.

I've seen 'em all over the place.

They were flying around.

I mean, you can hear them and then you see them way ahead of you.

They're flying all over the place.

- Well, you know, what are you gonna do if you're, like, a civilian on that plane?

I guess- - [Bystander 19] You're done.

- You're done, right?

- [Bystander 19] You know, when you think about it what's 300 people or 3,000 people?

- 40,000 people.

There's 40,000 people that work there.

- This is incredible.

We was walking down here, heading to the Trade Center to take pictures.

- [Patrick] Where do you live?

- I'm in LA.

I flew out here just for this show, the Jackson show.

You know, and coming down here, sightseeing and the building falling down.

Fell around 10:29.

- [Patrick] How'd it make you feel, man?

- Man, it's just taking all the breath away from Michael.

You know, they did a great show last night and then this shit happens.

- I was there, I just saw it all falling down.

It was, when I got out of the subway, it was people screaming, "Bomb," and they didn't let us out and when, then we went out and we saw this huge black smoke and people are screaming and moving in the street and suddenly, the police was screaming that the building's gonna fall.

That was when the first plane crashed into it and somebody grabbed me and we ran in the street and then I went to my building, which is across the street and then the second building, and then the second crash, and then it just all fell down and we were trapped in the building with smoke and smog all around us.

I was not in the Twin Towers, I was across the street, I was on Broadway, I saw it all happening.

We couldn't even, we couldn't see, we couldn't breathe.

They gave us rags, after 20 minutes, full of water to get out of the building and it was just so horrible.

People were screaming and crying in the streets and people coming out full of dust and smoke and police officers.

Do you know if there's any way out of the island?

- [Patrick] No.

- There's no way?

- [Patrick] Not right now.

- No, no.

You can't walk across the bridge.

(sirens wail) - [Reporter 10] US emphasis on Bin Laden.

It's Bin Laden, Bin Laden, Bin Laden.

So for United States, there's only one focus at a time in terms of somebody involved in terrorism.

Has the intelligence community fallen in love with the notion that only Bin Laden can do this?

- Only by the grace of God.

We came down from 44.

Only by the grace of God.

- [Reporter 11] Then all of a sudden, you saw this enormous cloud of brownish-gray smoke.

- [Patrick] How you feeling?

- Hm?

- [Patrick] How you feeling?

- I don't know what to say.

It's kind of strange.

Overwhelming.

- [Patrick] It's like unreal.

It's surreal to me.

- Yeah.

- [Patrick] Why are you taking pictures?

- I was down there when it happened, the first one.

I watched the plane go in and I've just been walking around with my film ever since.

- World Trade Center's right in front of us and it just, just swooped right in.

- Looked just like a missile going right into it.

- It's unbelievable.

I can't believe it.

And the explosion that came out was just, it was just like a mushroom cloud.

- [Patrick] Can you believe that view?

- [Bystander 20] No, I can't.

- [Patrick] That view is the worst view I've seen ever.

- I was supposed to leave, moving out of Manhattan yesterday.

My flight was canceled so there must be reason why all this is happening.

I'm appalled.

- [Patrick] This is like the war.

- Yeah.

- [Patrick] You know?

- Yeah.

- [Patrick] I bet you more people died here today than they did in Pearl Harbor.

- I bet you're right.

- Yep.

- There's eight hijacked planes in the air right now.

Well, minus the two that crashed already and another one that crashed in Pennsylvania, so they said there's five of 'em still in the air.

- The scar, the depth of 9/11 is definitely (gentle music) still not fully healed.

So here we are.

Washington Square Park.

Interesting.

First time I'm getting to look at the Freedom Tower from this perspective.

(upbeat music from radio) Wow.

A little bit different down here than 9/11.

- And I've been out walking on the street.

So freaky.

- [Patrick] What a difference 25 years makes.

- Yeah.

Did it blow up though?

Or it's just a fire?

It collapsed?

Oh, shit.

(gentle music) - Right where those kids were over there, having fun, I think that might've been near where we had the radio playing what was happening.

Feels like yesterday.

What do you hear on the radio?

Anything?

- They're just talking about more crashes.

- [Patrick] Where?

- One plane just crashed into Camp David.

- [Patrick] Camp David?

- Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

- [Patrick] Where else?

- They're talking about a plane that just crashed in Pittsburgh, but I can't hear what they're saying.

- [Reporter 12] As we mentioned just moments ago, a large plane has crashed in Western Pennsylvania.

Officials at Summerset County Airport outside Pittsburgh say the plane went down just north of the airport.

That would be about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

- Don't know, dude.

It looks like a terrorist attack.

That's all I can say.

I don't know.

(reporter speaking indistinctly) - Stampeded on and have things fall on top of me.

I saw a guy, I feel bad for this guy, you know, big guy, he was on the floor, had blood gushing out of his head and everything.

It was really bad.

- When not close, we were continue walking this way and then we heard, "Oh my god, the building is gone," so we looked and the building was gone, so we stand up on the corner and just look at all the tower and then we saw the tower just disappear, the second tower just gone.

- Collapsed from underneath itself.

- Then we just continue walking and we don't know what to do now because everything is closed.

We live in New Jersey, so just continue walking the street.

We don't know what to do, how to get home.

- You know, you look down lower for them, this is how you know where you are in Manhattan.

And you would just look there and there would be the two blinking red antenna and they're just not there.

- [Patrick] How are you guys feeling?

I'm pretty whacked out right now.

- Remember the movie "Siege"?

- [Patrick] Yeah.

- It came out two years ago and all the Arabs protest because there was, like, this coordinated attack around New York.

This is, it's like everybody thought that they can't shut this city down.

They shut the country down 'cause people aren't flying.

It's incredible.

- They got the fighter jets up in the air.

You gotta be over there.

I went down there with about 50 guys, so- - [Bystander 21] Just now?

- See how far I could get, see if they needed volunteers.

They're gonna need a lot of volunteers down there.

- [Bystander 21] Oh, the president.

- And we got down two blocks below Canal Street.

Pack of Newport.

And they stopped us all.

He got my number and they're gonna need, you know how many thousands of people are dead?

- I know how many firefighters and rescue people are, yeah.

Right, but it, it hit, people who were hit below the 74th floor heard they may not have been affected 'cause there was some people, some guy, Tony, he managed to get out, but if people were hit maybe above the 74th floor.

- They were probably targeting around 45th floor because that's the mechanical room.

They did the structural damage 'cause the plane, when I was working, I see a plane almost hit my crane right over here, the plane tilted.

Came about 50 feet from the plane, went straight into the building, I saw it hit the building.

- Did it go to the, the surrounding areas like Little Italy and Chinatown, do you know?

- Well, there was like an implosion because the building came, the second building came straight down.

- So it didn't attack that area, right?

- They had a reporter on the street and I heard that was right there in the street and saw the two, and it was the FBI and the police actually saw it come, but I saw it, the first one and the second one over here.

- Did it affect... I live in Little Italy, so did it- - It may not have gotten that far but I heard all the subways and all the tunnels and I heard somebody has a radio on in there probably bridges or metro.

- Everything is targeted right now.

The UN Building, the Federal Plaza, Grand Central, City Hall.

- I was on the subway when it happened.

I was, people were telling us.

You know they attacked the Chicago Sears Building also?

- No, they evacuated that building.

- If they're after the entire capitalistic system and I think they are, all right?

You don't know what might be next.

That's the whole thing.

- [Bystander 22] Worried about the fifties, isn't it?

- Well, now we're in, yeah, but now we're in, you know, we're- - My neighborhood's okay in Little Italy, I'm gonna go down and see my dog.

- I can't comprehend it at all.

It's madness.

- Most shocking thing I think I've ever seen and probably will ever see is.

- [Patrick] Do you know about the Pentagon and all the other places?

- No.

- [Bystander 23] No, what's that?

- [Patrick] Pentagon.

Plane crashed there.

- Seriously?

- [Bystander 23] Serious?

- [Patrick] In Pennsylvania, another plane crashed.

- Oh my god.

- [Patrick] They're worried about one in Chicago.

- [Bystander 23] No.

- [Patrick] It's an attack.

- [Bystander 23] Oh my god.

- Do they know anything about- - [Patrick] Yeah, Camp David, where the president hangs out, that's where they bombed.

- Really?

- [Patrick] And also, yeah, it's just- - I mean, we woke up this morning, we were like, we were gonna go and visit.

- [Patrick] You were gonna do what?

- We were gonna go and visit the building.

We were like, you know, if we'd got up like a bit earlier and gone, we would have been.

Well, we were going to go and see the Statue of Liberty first.

We would have been down there if we got up, left like an hour earlier.

- Really early this morning.

- [Patrick] Can you imagine the skyline now?

- Yeah, that's totally just what I was saying.

- New York's just a different place.

I just can't believe that, like, something that big is just gone in, like, I mean I don't know what the deal is, I don't know what organization, like, sort of did it but I just can't understand.

Just can't comprehend why anyone would, like, wanna do it.

It's honestly like a huge bit of history that we've witnessed, but it's just a bit of history I wish it didn't have to happen, you know?

It's like, it is a big thing and sort of in a way, it's weird that we've seen it, but you know, I didn't wanna see it.

Didn't want anyone to see it, so just wish it hadn't happened.

(crowd chatters) (bystander speaks foreign language) - You can't believe it?

- [Patrick] I'm sorry?

- You can't believe it, right?

- [Patrick] I'm in shock.

- Everybody go like that, man.

- [Patrick] I was, when that second tower, when those towers came down, I don't know, I think everybody, so many people were crying.

- Everybody cry, you know why?

Because happened very close to my brother there.

He was right there, but everything's all right.

He come in few minute.

- [Patrick] You talk to your brother?

- Yeah.

No, he call my by another on the phone.

He gave me the answer in the machine.

- [Patrick] Oh, good.

- Everything's all right.

- My brother smoke down there.

Smoke, lot of smoke.

- Everything, you know?

Is that a fume going smoke like this?

The ash is through like, like crazy.

You, you can see it right there.

- My daughter walk around there too.

- [Patrick] Is she okay?

- Yeah, she call, but she get a lot of smoke.

She can't see that side.

- You can't see over there.

Everything's dark right there.

They tell in TV, in the report, that's between 5,000 people, between five and 10,000, they dead.

I don't know.

- [Patrick] Buddy, you all right?

You all right, buddy?

- Yeah, I'm fine.

- [Patrick] How you doing, man?

Were you close to that?

- Yeah, eight blocks away.

(sirens wail) - [Patrick] You all right?

- Yeah.

I was at the Trade Center bombing, too, last time.

Helped with that evacuation too.

Yep.

- [Patrick] How do you feel?

- Fine.

Just the people are getting out there.

It's crazy out there, man.

- [Patrick] Do you know if any city workers were- - We have no stats on anything yet.

All I know is a lot of garbage down there, a lot of damage.

People jumpin' out of windows, lot of weird shit going on.

- [Patrick] We're getting down to West 3rd and Thompson here.

(horn honks) (crowd chatters) - I'd walk down at the Manhattan Bridge.

Where do you wanna go?

What train?

- [Bystander 24] Brooklyn.

- You wanna take a train?

'Cause train service is supposedly working.

Not here, but if you go down to Spring Street, or maybe up to, what's that, 23, 28, should be working there.

They said the A was working.

(crowd chatters) - [Bystander 25] What's going on?

You can't walk anywhere downtown here?

- You'll have to head towards the FDR.

- [Bystander 25] Pardon?

- Towards the FDR and to cut across.

- Okay.

Is this line going any further north?

- Right now, it's been, when they decide to move it further north, they'll tell me.

(sirens wail) (crowd chatters) (engine rumbles) - Everybody's gotta move down, down past Worth Street.

We're moving the line down, everybody down past Worth Street.

- Has south of here been evacuated?

- Yes.

Everyone move south.

Everybody down past Worth Street.

Past the scaffolding.

- [Patrick] What happened to the building?

- There are, from the explosion, you know, they have to check now for the structural soundness of the surrounding buildings that were hit by the debris.

A lot of the glass windows were blown out.

Some of the buildings have airplane parts in front of them so the big concern now is making sure that everybody got out of those buildings.

- [Patrick] Did all your colleagues get out?

- We believe so, yeah.

- [Patrick] Where you going?

- I'm going home.

I live on West 10th Street.

And walking seems to be the best course of action right now.

- [Patrick] I think it's the only.

- Yeah.

- I looked over to my left and I saw a big jet coming and I was, I couldn't believe it.

I'm like, "We gotta get out of here."

- You could actually feel the heat from the explosion through the window.

- [Patrick] Really?

- Yeah, it was, oh, man.

- [Patrick] So did you see the other plane hit, or?

- Not the first one.

The second one, yeah.

Second one, we were just looking out the window when it hit.

- [Patrick] Was it just horrifying, or?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- 'Cause, I mean, you just seen it and then it was in, like, in suspended animation you saw the jet engine and then the jet engine just like went into the building and disintegrated.

It was just unbelievable.

(siren wails) (crowd chatters) (horn beeping) - Something feels very familiar here, yeah.

I'm feeling kind of strange right now, I'm feeling like I'm getting over it, you know?

It's, it doesn't really, I don't know.

I guess it will come in waves, but it's just a bizarre, bizarre feeling.

(horns blare) It's just so surreal.

I don't think, and nobody, it's like nobody's really excited about it.

It's just insane.

(siren wails) (bystander speaks indistinctly) This is insane though.

- Unreal.

Unreal.

Unreal.

I've always sort of thought that this country was wide open for terrorist attacks.

- [Patrick] Well, this is a wake-up call and it's a harsh one.

We're different.

- The guy on CNN kept going, kept saying, "All of the landmark buildings of New York."

It's like, landmark buildings of New York?

It's fuckin' landmark building of the planet Earth, you know?

I mean, come on.

- [Patrick] It is.

- It's the most famous structure in the world practically.

You could show that picture to somebody in Khartoum.

They'll know it's the World Trade Center.

It's New York.

- [Patrick] What kind of retaliation do you think that there will be?

- I don't know.

It's really tricky, man.

Yeah, I'll tell you something.

Well, I mean, there's always a lot of sort of, a lot of people who are not particularly sympathetic with Israel, criticizing Israel for being too harsh, going after terrorists and, you know, but people here, it's easy to criticize, nothing was happening here.

Now when something like this happens here, we'll see what our attitude is and what our retaliation is, and it probably will be very severe.

And the suffering has just begun, and I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of bombs and stuff going off in other countries.

- [Bystander 26] You don't know where to be.

- I'm telling you, I don't know where to go.

- [Patrick] You guys okay?

- Yeah, I'm okay.

Thank you.

- [Patrick] This is horrendous.

- It's a shame.

Looks like the end of the world.

We don't know which way to go.

- [Patrick] You don't know which way to go.

- This is planned, boy.

Very well planned.

Here, there, they don't give you a chance to catch your breath.

- They're hitting us left and right.

We have to retaliate.

We have to do something.

We can't let them get away with murder.

- [Patrick] Who's they?

- They, the terrorists.

- That Desert Storm bullshit in plain English.

Why didn't they do it then?

That's all.

Get rid of 'em.

Oh, am I talking on?

- [Patrick] Yeah, no, I'm with you on this.

I'm totally with you.

You know, I just- - They better crack down.

It's a little too easy to get in and out and all around.

- Everybody gets away with murder.

- They better stop people from coming in.

- We're too lenient.

- [Patrick] We are.

I think this is gonna change the way a lot of people view terrorists.

- Other countries, the security, you can't get in, around- - But yet, all the foreigners are here.

- Yeah.

- All the foreigners are here.

There's more here than there.

- [Patrick] But are those people foreigners or are they just different Americans?

- Well, whatever you wanna call them, you name them.

They're not familiar to me.

- Mind our own business and get out of the Middle East and mind our own damn business.

Worry about this country for a change.

Worrying about every other damn country.

Keep peace, keep peace.

Meanwhile, those people don't believe in peace.

- All we have to do is pray.

God listens to our prayers.

It seems like the end of the world, really.

- [Patrick] It's very troubling.

- No Twin Towers.

- [Patrick] No Twin Towers.

The view is like, never gonna- - Can't believe it.

- [Patrick] What are you guys, you guys work around here, or you work?

- He work downtown.

- You work downtown?

Where'd you work?

- 140 Wall Street.

- [Patrick] How close is it?

- It's, we saw the building right out the window.

We were on the 45th floor.

Saw the building right out the window.

- [Patrick] You get the fuck out?

- Yeah, we went down the stairs when the second one went.

- [Patrick] What do you think we're gonna do?

- Me, personally?

I would get all the fuckin' jets and bomb everybody.

That's what I would do.

- Gotta do something.

We can't let this happen and not do something about it.

- I am, I feel like the ground has just evaporated underneath me.

Like everything is an illusion.

You saw those things fall down?

- [Patrick] Yeah.

I'm still shaken from it.

- They were like, just like nothing.

Just those huge buildings.

Just like dust.

This is, people will divide their lives around today, you know?

Before the World Trade Centers came down and after.

Nothing will be the same after this.

I just hope there's no war as a result of this.

(gentle rock music) ♪ I got up and turned on my television ♪ - Everybody was looking down at the towers, down at Ground Zero, down 5th Avenue and I wanted to know why and that's why I decided to turn my lens the other way.

This collective documentation of that day created a pretty good representation of what it was like to be in New York City on one of its darkest days.

Wow.

25 years.

I hadn't been down to Ground Zero since 9/11.

I thought it'd be good for me.

♪ Nothing tougher than losing a friend ♪ - It's your name.

Your name is your legacy.

And see all these names here, and the legacies that they've left behind.

We knew the world was going to be a different place that day and the future was so uncertain.

I lost two friends that day.

Brian Novotny, Kanter Fitzgerald, and Tom Foley, who's a firefighter, and graduated in my class.

It's a shame that when you have tragedies like that, that's what brings people together.

Who am I?

I'm just another guy that was on the street that day.

I just happened to have a camera and like to ask questions.

But all of us have stories of 9/11 and I think it's important for people to share their stories of 9/11 and the horror and hopefully the good.

♪ Only time can heal the pain ♪ ♪ Heal my pain ♪ ♪ Heal your pain ♪ ♪ Heal the pain ♪