Taken by Richard Drew in the moments after the September 11, 2001, attacks, it documents one person’s individual escape from the collapsing towers. The image was published in the New York Times, and other newspapers around the U.S., but backlash from readers forced it into obscurity. I had almost forgotten about it until the Don DeLillo Novel, Falling Man was published in 2007.
They began jumping not long after the first plane hit the North Tower, and kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped from the offices of Marsh & McLennan, the insurance company; from the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading company; from Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors—the top. For more than an hour and a half, they jumped.
At fifteen seconds after 9:41 a.m., on September 11, 2001, the Falling Man jumped too.
Falling Man’s identity is still unknown, but he is believed to have been an employee at the Windows on the World restaurant, which sat atop the north tower. Who was Falling Man? The only certainty we have is that at fifteen seconds after 9:41 a.m., on September 11, 2001, a photographer named Richard Drew took a picture of a man falling through the sky—falling through time as well as through space. The picture went all around the world, and then disappeared. Drew’s photograph, our photograph, became an unmarked grave, and the Falling Man became our generation’s Unknown Soldier. Richard Drew’s photograph is all we know of him, and yet his innocence reminds us of who we were then, and makes us reflect on who we are now. The picture is like the monuments dedicated to the memory of unknown soldiers everywhere, it asks that we look at it, and that we remember.
I did see it. I was living in NY caring for my elderly mother on 9/11. Saw that touching photo and it was one of the saddest bc this man chose sure death on his terms rather than succumb to flames or collapsing building. Today brings back to me, painfully, like it was yesterday. Just so sad for all those families.
Thank you Hope and Wayne Creed. I remember the photo and other video of jumping bodies. We still grieve for them,and honor their courage.
I will never forget watching the video of the Muslim men partying and cheering on New Jersey rooftops as the towers fell and American lives were lost. That is an image I will never forget.
Never happened. Not on 9/11. Never was shown on national television, because it did not happen on that fateful day. Fake News, Stuart Bell. You may have seen a video of Muslim partying. Not denying that, but it wasn’t in reference to the fall of the towers. No way, no how. Now, if you want to speak of righteous gloating, let’s talk about the several hundred civilian deaths due to Shock and Awe from the Iraq invasion of 2003. Let’s discuss W’s grand glorious celebration of early victory (premature was more like it) with the flight to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and the infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner. Fact: The vast majority of casualties, both military and civilian, occurred after the speech. Think about that.
Funk You!
Chas, both Mr. Bell and I watched-on WWOR Channlel and WPIX channel 11 as they danced and celebrated. In Patterson the ‘community’ handed out sweets- I will never forget the image of the community dancing gleefully as the policeman in the car looked on in disgust.
As for your “Lancet” driven numbers of deaths in Iraq, that is bool sheet and has been debunked. Over and over again.
The Abraham Lincoln WAS at end of mission, and the banner was THEIRS.
You want a fact? FACT, most deaths came under the Obama admin. FACT.
I drive a minivan. If I say I love my minivan, but want only two doors. And an 8 cylinder HiPerformance engine. And a sloped hood, and aerodynamic rear. One with only two seats.
Tell me Chas, do I love my minivan? Nope, I wanna change it to something IT IS NOT.
Now tell me why you hate America. All you want to do is to change it to what it NEVER WAS. Why do you hate America?
Mike, your Muslim dancing was debunked during Trump’s campaign. Never happened. You and Stuart still holding on to those Trump talking points?
Time to move on.
https://twitter.com/ianderickson/status/1039516105566445570
While many of the videos have been ‘removed for viewers protection’ this one remains.
Gee, Tokenny, it was the same ‘community’ at the same address 8 years earlier celebrating too!!! AT THE FIRST WORLD TRADE CENTER BOMBING.
Tokenny, I SAW them. You can hide your head in the sand all you want, but I saw them and they exist.
You. Are. Wrong.
LOL, Mike you worked in the court system, how much accuracy do you want to put in that report?
From the reporter himself, in response to the “1000’s of Muslims” Trump saw dancing
“…Guzman said all of these reports were “mostly anecdotal. People called into police and news. When you tried to follow up it wasn’t quite like we were told — it was a game of telephone.””
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/journalist-calls-trumps-911-claims-stretch/story?id=35529968
Mike, it sure is funny how no police official is quoted, mentioned, named in the report. No live individual on the TV saying how despicable the action was. In the aftermath of what happened this would seem like a report that would have legs, however it went nowhere. Even Chris Christie said no way
I saw little green men landing on a football field near me.
There are none so blind………
We watched it.
You have a great day, I hope the sand is warm around your head.
Thanks, I did not feel like explaining to this liberal loon what I saw with my own eyes. I am so sick of these people I could vomit at their liberal feet. If you could find the video, please forward it to his silly a$$.
And while I’m at it Mike, “The Abraham Lincoln WAS at end of mission, and the banner was THEIRS.” I’m laughing so hard I can’t see through the tears to type. Aircraft Carriers must be so small these days that George couldn’t find a place for his photo op.
That picture was frame purposefully and the message was loud and clear. It wasn’t some pool photographer that took it and it happened to get published. The Administration marketed the image and the message!
Has your doctor changed your prescription? Did someone hijack you email? You aren’t usually this nutty. Are you sharing someone’s tinfoil hat?
Aren’t you special, comrade. You lefties will just drink up any ol’ pablum spewed your way, woncha?
Why do you hate America so? Say the word and I’d be glad to help you purchase a ticket to Venezuela, or North Korea, Cuba…..
That was a nice attempt at a deflection but my statement wasn’t about being a leftist or hating America, it was about you and your idiotic statement that the photo of Bush standing in front of a Mission Accomplished banner was somehow not a statement by the Administration that they thought they were done with the fighting.
You seem to have lost the perspective that we went to war in the wrong place for the wrong reason and that American lives were lost and continue to be lost because of that decision. That my friend, is truly unAmerican.
So blame the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, proposed and signed by Democrats.
Once again, a war started by D’s and ended by R’s.
Why do you hate America so? Why do you prefer an America on it’s knees ala Obama and one rising under Trump?
Why do you HATE America?
BTW? I got my info from the Commanding officer of the A. Lincoln, but I bet you got yours from Wikipedia.
Mike, I’ll keep hammering at your non-nonsensical argument . Did we go to war in 1998? I don’t think so and for educational purposes, the bill was sponsored by two Republicans. The House passed the bill 360 – 38 and the Senate passed it unanimously. So , it looks like you can’t pin it to any one party but Bush decided to use that, in part to go to war. Please stop!
Dude, you must be a troll if you think America is rising under Trump. The only thing rising under Trump is the deficit. Remember when Republicans were concerned about that? Remember when Republicans had a backbone and actually care about a America? Remember when it was Country over Party? I’m sure you do but your’re not going to admit it. You drank the kool-aid and now you must swallow it.
I don’t care who made the sign, put it up or anything like that, a speech was given in front of that sign that show utter arrogance of the complexities of war.
Vero Possumus, at the Brandenburg gate stood the “Office of the President Elect”. I guess it’s better than getting oral sex in the Oval office, and then lying in a legal proceeding.
But I guess that your comment about using it to go to war shows how little you lefties follow LAWS. It was the LAW to affect regime change that Peyroni Pete signed into LAW. And then there was the whole UN resolution. I thought you lefties loved global governance? Or only when it suits your needs?
Too funny, a leftist telling me I drank the kool aid.
Glug glug glug Toker.
Why, why do you hate America so much?
Hey Mike lets end this conversation since you haven’t had much of an intelligent response. Your current love of America is whats going to pull it apart. Cheers!
Cheers to you too. Rather than sit in your basement- In front of that big Che poster y’all love so much over there on the left- this weekend getting tanked, spend some $$ at Kelley’s.
After all, Capitalism is what makes the world go round.
I’ll be traveling around these lovely 57 states of America. Looking for Corpse-men.
On the anniversary of that horrible day we still have emotionally blind people who think things like this didn’t happen ? We still have to deal with people with their heads in the sand ? We are not all recognizing and accepting what happened that day ? It was a terror attack. They thought out the worst way to create as much terror as they could, and they did a real good job of it. There’s a few things that I know beyond a shadow of any doubt that some sarcastic and sad human being can try to deny, but truly can’t disprove. When you grow up in Wayne N.J, and you lose 3 friends in those towers, and 4 other friends escaped with lbs. of dust all over them, and you worked in Paterson, had friends who worked in Cedar Grove, there is a very sad and very different reality from any denier here. I mention Cedar Grove because Muslim dances on flags took place there too. In a commercial business that I won’t slander at this time. You don’t know the people that beat the —- out of those dancers in that shop.You didn’t experience the unmistakable yet horrible and disgusting sound of a human life ending as it slammed into the pavement from so high up. You didn’t experience the absolute necessity to make sure no fallling bodies WERE landing on you as you escaped the building. YES you did have to look up and make sure none were hurtling towards you as you escaped on the ground floor. There were many, not just a few. There were MANY lying all around. Make sure you don’t trip over their splattered remains. So in your honor I too deny the Holocaust and 12/7/41 and 9/11. Just do us both a favor. On 10/28 go buy a 25 lb. pumpkin. Stand on the roof of your car. Raise it above your head and slam it to the pavement as hard as you can. Then go ask all the psychiatrists of all the seekers of relief of post 9/11 trauma, and ask them if by any chance that is what it sounded like. NOPE. Never happened . gheeezus…….For the record, I am too smart to bear ill will towards Muslims. MANIACS did that. Not Muslims. Two questions. Do you recognize the truth when you read it ? OR do you have such a need to compartmentalize horror in your mind that you can’t face it ? Your mental and emotional situation is one or the other. I should be so lucky.
Note: Thank you for this wonderful comment. I was working at FT Belvoir, just a few miles away from the Pentagon. Three of my co-workers did not come back out. On Facebook this week, I actually saw several posts saying a plane never hit the building, that the government sent in a cruise missile instead. I don’t understand people sometimes.
It was a beautiful clear morning on 9/11. I was waiting in the hallway for my friend, Carrie, for our drawing class. She was late. Finally she arrived, crying. I said “what’s wrong??” She said her husband was in the World Trade Center. I said “so what?” She replied “a plane crashed into it!!” Just then a professor overheard us and invited us into his office to see it on his TV. I couldn’t believe the horror. We had heard all the sirens screaming south on 7th Avenue. Her husband made it out alive, barely. He described the falling bodies all around him as he fled the burning building. So horrific he could hardly speak. He made it to the water and climbed onto the bow of the old fire boat which brought him over to Jersey City where he lived. Safe. Our professor never made it to class. Seems he was riding his bicycle from his apartment in lower Manhattan. My next door neighbor was also watching the news. She wasn’t feeling good because she was pregnant. Her husband died that morning and never got to meet his baby born later that week. Another neighbor was also working in the Trade Center and never made it home. My mother sent flowers but his father wouldn’t accept them because he said his son was alive and probably in a hospital somewhere. He never came home. And so it went on like that in my old neighborhood in NY. So many died that I knew. I will never forget that day. Innocent lives. Brave men all over trying to help as best as they could. Now there are two beams of light shining towards the sky where those two towers stood. Empty beams of light that say so much about us and our country. Rest In Peace.
Dear Hope Wright, I am sorry you were so close. I am sorry you lived what you lived. I am sorry you know what you know. I am sorry you felt what you felt. I am sorry that what we know and feel will never go away. I am sorry if I awoke it in you.
I understand why folks don’t well up with tears in their eyes like we do.Either you/we were stuck living it or they weren’t. This day was simply repeated daily for weeks with the reality of the obits and follow ups.
Best Wishes
Jack and Hope,
I will always keep you both in my thoughts and prayers. I too lost people that day, and will never ever forget watching those vermin celebrate.
God bless America.
Thanks, Jack. I ran from school to get the LIRR home to comfort my mother. As the crowded train emerged out of the tunnel, my seat faced backwards and I looked out the window and saw two huge blooms of jet black smoke heading south from the towers. There was a lady near me from the Empire State Building crying she was never returning bc her building would be next. Many others were crying that they’d change jobs and move out of NY. I got home to my sweet mother watching the news. She was completely silent, in shock. I made her breakfast and tried to return to normal. I was strong for her but went into the garage and yelled and screamed and cried. We didn’t yet know what it was all about nor how many neighbors said their last good byes as they left for work that morning. Our flag was flying that morning. It’s still flying out front. My mother passed away and no reason to remain in NY anymore, so I moved back down here to Virginia Beach. September 11th will always be a solemn day of reflection for me as those images remain embedded in my memory forever. God bless America.