September 11, 2021
After the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, thousands of people who worked in those two buildings were missing. Almost immediately, in the face of their sudden disappearance, friends and family created flyers that they posted throughout the City, especially in downtown Manhattan. Many of them appeared in the ambulance bays of hospitals including Beth Israel, Bellevue, and Saint Vincent’s.
Outside the Armory on Lex
Others were posted en mass on the Lexington Avenue side of the 69th Regiment Armory near East 26th Street and along the 1st Avenue side of the Bellevue campus. An EMS Paramedic that was working down there at the time recalled of the flyers, “they were very powerful and not just because of the sheer number of them, which was staggering. But because of the moment in time frozen in the photos on them. Happy times, maybe showing them out for drinks with the gang after work, or on a cruise ship, maybe a day at the beach, or posing with a brother or sister. It was heartbreaking. The other thing that struck me was that they were so young. Most of them looked like they were in their 20s or early 30s. Desperately posted names, the company they worked for, contact phone numbers, which floor they worked on, and a photo. I’d take time to look at them often, but after a couple of minutes, I couldn’t see them clearly anymore because tears would well up in my eyes.”
Please visit them at the 9/11 Living Memorial by clicking here.
Inwood was rocked by the attack and shrines popped up right away, with just a few candles at first like we do up here, and then they continued to grow. The one by Inwood Hill Park was amazing. You’d see people stopping by to pray or remember the missing at all hours, day and night, perhaps to light a candle or leave a ‘MISSING’ flyer or a bottle of beer. There was a man who kept a vigil over it 24/7, all Winter long, and in all kinds of weather. A year later he was still out there and he only let it go when the Museum of the City of New York offered to bring it indoors and take proper care of it, according to local legend.
Inwood 9/11 Shrine
Bellevue, St. Vincent’s, Armory.
Shot on film, September 2001