World Trade Center Photos

By Neil deGrasse Tyson

Assorted camcorder frames and other stills of the World Trade Center, taken within blocks of my home in lower Manhattan, itself four blocks from Ground Zero.

The “Sphere” sculpture and fountain with the base of the World Trade Center in the background.
July 8, 2001—World Trade Center Plaza, with its centerpiece fountain and sculpture by Fritz Koenig, titled “The Sphere”, conceived as a symbol of world peace.
The view from 107th floor of World Trade Center, Tower 2, looking east. Pictured are the nearby buildings and skyscrapers, the East River, and the Manhattan Bridge.
July 8, 2001—World Trade Center, Tower 2. View from 107th floor, looking east. Woolworth Building is in view on left.
The twin towers looking straight up. One tower rises from the bottom of the frame, and the other from the top-right of the frame. They converge toward a point in the top-center.
July 31, 2001—World Trade Center twin towers: One acre of office space per floor, per buiding. Rising a quarter mile into the sky.
Tower 1 of the World Trade Center is ablaze with black smoke eminating from its top.
September 11, 2001—World Trade Center Tower 1 is ablaze. Three seconds before Tower 2 gets hit.
With Tower 1 on fire, Tower 2 is hit by the plane, showing a burst of flame.
September 11, 2001—World Trade Center Tower 1 is ablaze. Tower 2 gets hit. The view of the oncoming 767 airplane was blocked by the dark-glass 50-story Millenium Hilton Hotel. The pulverized parts of the fast-moving plane and its passengers burst forth.
The impact on Tower 2 explodes with smoky plane parts falling to the ground.
September 11, 2001—One second after Tower 2 gets hit. Twenty-thousand gallons of jet fuel ignites.
The explosion in Tower 2 expands as smoke begins to form around the explosion and the sky fills with paper and debris.
September 11, 2001—Four seconds after Tower 2 gets hit. Flames completely engulf the upper 40 floors of the Towers. At this point I cowered from the fireball’s intense radiant heat. Visible are the descending fragmentts of aluminum fuselages and other debris cast forth by the airplane’s impact.
Dust and debris fills the air and settles on the ground and cars on Park Row in Manhattan.
September 11, 2001—One hour after both towers had collapsed, a thick layer of dust had settled on all adjacent blocks. Near my residence, accumulations ranged from 1/2-inch in the middle of the streets, to 4-inches up against buildings and anything else that impeded the rolling dust cloud.
Looking toward the World Trade Center, which has collapsed, leaving a void in the sky, with thick smoke and dust in the air below.
September 11, 2001—One hour after both towers collapsed, above the dense smoke, blue sky appeared where the towers had once stood.
A picture of the street covered in dust and office paper, with a military Humvee in the foregraound.
September 11, 2001—One hour after both towers collapsed, military vehicles had already arrived. Laying in the street are a few hundred of the billions of sheets of office paper that had been cast forth like confetti during the collapse.
Looking down Liberty Street toward the skeletal steel facade of Tower 2 near sunset. One Liberty Plaza, the black, steel skyscraper is pictured on the right.
September 17, 2001—A skeletal fragment of World Trade Center Tower 2 remains standing, as the smoke from ground fires continue to rage.
The view toward the site from Fulton Street, with the shattered World Trace Center 5 and the World Financial Center in the background. The sky remains partially filled with dust and smoke.
September 17, 2001—Looking up Fulton Street, in view is the burned out World Trade Center Building No. 5. This structure, all of a half-dozen stories, burned, but did not collapse The World Financial Center sits in the background, with various windows broken from falling debris.
A nighttime view of the site, with cranes and lighting brought in for the cleanup process.
September 18, 2001—Demolition at Ground Zero. Cleanup proceeded 24 hours per day. The fires burned through the end of January 2002.
The facade and wrought iron fence around St. Paul’s church at night. The fence is covered papers and cloth banners with messages and well wishes.
September 18, 2001—Saint Paul’s Church, adjacent to Ground Zero, served as an impromptu shrine to the 3,000 dead, as did the sidewalks in front of every fire station and police station in the city.
Pictured are the impromptu shrine of pictues, messages, and the American flag.
September 18, 2001—Close-up of the surrounding gate at Saint Paul’s Church, adjacent to Ground Zero.
The damaged “Sphere” sculpture after being dug out of ground zero. here is it on display in battery Park.
August 17, 2002—Fritz Koenig’s sculpture, “The Sphere,” damaged from the collapse of the Twin Towers, was moved to Battery Park for public viewing.