NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — After the collapse of the twin towers many people were trapped, with roads and bridges shut down. New Yorkers turned to the river, where mariners jumped into action.
CBS2’s Aundrea Cline-Thomas has more on the lesser-known story of the historic evacuations on the water.
Twenty years later, New York Waterway ferry Capt. Richard Thornton is still on the Hudson River.
“You always want to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary,” Thornton said. “Every once in a while you’re struck with the horrors you witnessed that day.”
Complete Coverage: 9/11 Twenty Years Later
On Sept. 11, 2001, on his typical route, he witnessed the planes barreling into the World Trade Center. After the second one hit, there was no question New York City was under attack.
“I just pulled a U-turn. I didn’t call anybody. I didn’t get clearance from the Coast Guard, Port Ops or the management. I just kind of stole the ferry and headed downtown,” Thornton said.
The ferries were among the first boats to reach the shoreline to meet a crush of people clouded in fog of smoke and dust.
“Even New Yorkers completely forget that Manhattan is an island, and that when the bridges and the tunnels shut down the only way on or off is by boat. And that’s exactly what happened that day,” said author Jessica Dulong.
The John J. Harvey fireboat was the main water supply to firefighters. Personal sailboats and mariners beelined to the island on fire, improvising along the way.
“Some people were jumping into the river and swimming out of Manhattan in pure panic mode. So we stopped to pick up a few people in the water,” Thornton said.
With few docks in the area, makeshift and sometimes risky techniques were used for boarding.
“For the longest time, my daughter, my older daughter, Taylor, could not come on the esplanade, because this is the way we came to get evacuated,” Lower Manhattan resident Justine Cuccia said.
Cuccia was eight months pregnant when she and her family carefully made their way onto a private boat, but another mother, with a newborn, was afraid to get on.
“They wanted her to give the baby and then have her step because they were afraid if she fell,” Cuccia said.
With urgency mounting, Cuccia took action.
“With this big belly, I go to her and I say, ‘Will you give me your baby?’ And she kind of looks at me, looks at my stomach, hands me her baby to take the baby in time for her to get on the boat. Give him a little kiss on his head. Give him back. And I went to the back of the boat with my family. She stayed, whatever,” Cuccia said.
Up to 500,000 people were believed to have been rescued that day, the largest water evacuation in history.
Dulong documented the lesser-known stories of heroism from everyday people in her book “Saved at the Seawall — Stories from the September 11 Boat Lift.”
“I’m hoping that as we can look back on 20 years, we can see that coming together in that way is still possible,” Dulong said.
She said it’s still possible, even during a pandemic.
“One minute you’re looking at the worst of humanity, the planes crashing into the towers. The next minute, you’re seeing the best,” Thornton said.
Because when so much was lost, our collective humanity was all we had.
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