4 October 2001. Thanks to Anonymous Photographer (AP).
[MIT SAFE edit: This is a reduced-size mirror. The images below have been reduced/compressed for faster download. (- Seth Finkelstein)]
By AP
These 72 photographs of the World Trade Center disaster site in New York City were taken by AP on 3 October 2001, about noon. The first few, 001-004, were taken from Broadway, walking south, several blocks east of the WTC site from street corners where a part of the site can be seen. These locations are where the public is blocked by barricades and guards.
Then a few photos, 005-012, were taken during a walk along a street off Broadway going west, a couple of blocks south of the site. Every cross street was barricaded and guarded.
This street intersected the West Side Highway, a wide boulevard which passes by the WTC site. A series of photos, 013-018 were taken walking north toward the site. There were no barricades or guards along this path, which was surprising for the site is carefully guarded at most of its perimeter by police and the military and the public is kept at least two blocks distant and usually much farther away.
The next photos, 019-051, are close-ups of the site looking east and west from the West Side Highway, east to the location of the collapsed World Trade Center and west toward the heavily damaged World Financial Center (WFC) located across the West Side Highway from WTC.
Photos were taken from several angles during a walk north past the sites, and then more, 052-073, taken retracing that path walking south.
At the end of this return walk a NYC police officer asked to be shown authorization for taking photographs. AP said there was none. The officer asked how access to the site was gained. AP said I just walked in. Other police officers were consulted, several said this is a crime scene, no photographs allowed.
A NYC police captain was consulted who directed that AP be escorted from the site but that the digital photos need not be confiscated. The captain advised AP to apply for an official permit to photograph the site.
A NYC police officer took AP to New York State police officers nearby who asked to examine the digital camera and view the photographs. Without telling AP, who was being questioned by a State police officer, the photographs were deleted from the camera's compact flash memory chip by another State police officer.
AP was then escorted to the perimeter of the site by yet another NYC police officer who recorded AP's name, and who issued a warning to stay away from the site or face arrest.
______________________
While waiting to leave the site, a group of victim families were escorted toward the ruins. Many carrying flowers, crying, holding hands, stumbling, dreading their walk into hell -- which the site truely is. A terrible scene of heartbreak far worse than photographs can ever show.
______________________
Later, AP, after discovering the photographs had been deleted, restored them with a program called Photorescue sold by DataRescue, a Belgian company which offers the program online.
The camera used was a Nikon CoolPix 880, with a 192MB Compact Flash memory chip.
For public education. No restrictions on non-commercial reproduction. Credit Cryptome.
Mirror sites of photographs. Please use these mirrors, Cryptome is being hammered by downloads of the large-sized files. Other mirrors welcome, send URLs.
http://rearviewmirror.org/wtcphotos/wtc-photos.htm
http://www.parrhesia.com/wtc/ (California; offers reduced-sized images)
http://www.phonon.net/wtc/ (Massachusetts)
http://weltwissen.koeln.ccc.de/~drt/cryptome.org/wtc/wtc-photos.htm (Germany)
http://166.122.19.198/wtc/wtc-photos.html (Hawaii)
Original cryptome.org text: Each image is about 1MB, of high resolution JPG. Best viewed on a large monitor.
MIT SAFE edit: The following images are not the original images. They have been reduced in size and compressed for better downloading. They are now 150KB to 200MB in size, resolution 1024x768 (down from 2048x1568 in the originals). Still best viewed on a large monitor (- Seth Finkelstein)
From Broadway looking west, walking south, blocks from WTC site:
wtc001_1024x768.jpg
wtc002_1024x768.jpg
wtc003_1024x768.jpg
wtc004_1024x768.jpg
From street off Broadway looking north, walking west, still blocks away:
wtc005_1024x768.jpg
wtc006_1024x768.jpg
wtc007_1024x768.jpg
wtc008_1024x768.jpg
wtc009_1024x768.jpg
wtc010_1024x768.jpg
wtc011_1024x768.jpg
wtc012_1024x768.jpg
From the West Side Highway looking north, walking toward WTC:
wtc013_1024x768.jpg
wtc014_1024x768.jpg
wtc015_1024x768.jpg
wtc016_1024x768.jpg
wtc017_1024x768.jpg South bridge connecting WTC and
WFC.
wtc018_1024x768.jpg
From the West Side Highway walking north, looking east to the WTC and west to the World Financial Center (WFC):
wtc019_1024x768.jpg WTC, southwest corner, bridge
at left to WFC.
wtc020_1024x768.jpg WTC, with two-story remains of
12-story Vista Hotel at the base of WTC.
Crimson screened building beyond is the damaged Millennium Hotel.
wtc021_1024x768.jpg WTC. Tall creamy building beyond
is the historic Woolworth Building.
wtc022_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc023_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc024_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc025_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc026_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc027_1024x768.jpg WFC, American Express (Amex),
showing parts of WTC embedded high on the
facade.
wtc028_1024x768.jpg Port Authority Visitor Viewing
Stand.
wtc029_1024x768.jpg WFC Bridge.
wtc030_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc031_1024x768.jpg WTC. Tall creamy building beyond
is the historic Woolworth Building.
wtc032_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc033_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc034_1024x768.jpg WTC. Dark building facade beyond
shows 10-story gash caused by tower collapse.
wtc035_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc036_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc037_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc038_1024x768.jpg WFC, Amex tower.
wtc039_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc040_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc041_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc042_1024x768.jpg WFC, Amex tower.
wtc043_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc044_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc045_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc046_1024x768.jpg WFC, Amex tower base, damaged
Wintergarden Pavilion at left.
wtc047_1024x768.jpg WTC (partial photo)
[wtc048 not used]
wtc049_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc050_1024x768.jpg
WTC
wtc051_1024x768.jpg End of walk north.
From West Side Highway, walking south:
wtc052_1024x768.jpg WFC, base of Amex tower.
wtc053_1024x768.jpg WFC, Crystal Pavilion.
wtc054_1024x768.jpg WFC, Amex tower.
wtc055_1024x768.jpg WTC, looking southeast.
wtc056_1024x768.jpg WFC, Amex tower base, Wintergarden
Pavilion.
wtc057_1024x768.jpg WFC, Amex tower base, Wintergarden
Pavilion. Large crane being assembled.
wtc058_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc059_1024x768.jpg Building north of WTC. Holes in
facade may have been cause by heavy aircraft
debris which rocketed from the South Tower.
wtc060_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc061_1024x768.jpg WTC, remains of low building at
northwest.
wtc062_1024x768.jpg WTC, remains of low building at
northwest.
wtc063_1024x768.jpg WTC, remains of low building at
northwest.
wtc064_1024x768.jpg WTC, remains of low building at
northwest.
wtc065_1024x768.jpg WTC, remains of low building at
northwest.
wtc066_1024x768.jpg WTC, large box columns, probably
base columns.
wtc067_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc068_1024x768.jpg WTC, elevator machine motor.
wtc069_1024x768.jpg WTC, elevator machine motor.
wtc070_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc071_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc072_1024x768.jpg WTC
wtc073_1024x768.jpg WTC
