Reporting from Ground Zero
By
So here’s the 9/11 truth, at least when it comes to how I got to make pictures at Ground Zero on September 11th. It took me 12 hours to get from Philadelphia to midtown Manhattan, by train, sometimes hiking and even hitchhiking.
I was exhausted in every sense, it seemed like every path was blocked, and I found myself turning back, surrendering to the thought of a hotel room in Times Square with a shower and a king size bed.
I thought I might try to get in again on the 12th, but we now know that a complete federal lockdown was in progress, with National Guard troops on the perimeter and only FEMA photographers permitted inside – for the next year.
But no sooner had I turned back when I ran into Chris Brennan. His face said “How could you?” – and he shamed me into taking “one more shot.”
About two hours later, by the end of the longest day of my life, Chris and I would be among the very, very small number of journalists who saw Ground Zero after the smoke cleared enough to breathe but before the barbed wire went up the next day.
His remarkable performance deserved more attention then and there but much of his reporting was lost in the chaos of the newsroom that day.
Finally, we have a chance to hear his story - beginning at my expense, however truthfully.
