Description: A personal beeper that belonged to Jonathan Eric Briley, who worked at Windows on the World restaurant.
Context: Jonathan Eric Briley worked as an audiovisual technician at Windows on the World, a restaurant located on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower. Every morning he would watch the sun rise over New York City from atop the tower. On September 11, 2001, terrorists flew a hijacked planed into the North Towers of the World Trade Center, impacting floors 94-98. His personal beeper, ID card, and ring of keys were recovered with his remains.
Description: This material from Officer Isaac Ho‘opi‘i includes his uniform (shirt with insignia, trousers, boots, and name tag), his shield, his dog Vito’s collar and shield, a K-9 patch, and a poster of Vito.
Context: Hearing a report on his patrol-car radio of the terrorists’ attack on the Pentagon, Isaac Ho‘opi‘i (a native of Hawaii) rushed to the destroyed portion of the building. He quickly realized that many people were trapped inside and disoriented by the thick smoke. After carrying a number of people to safety, he ventured as far as he dared go into the smoke-filled building, calling out in his booming deep voice: “Come towards my voice.” Ho‘opi‘i is credited with saving many lives.
Description: Fire wardens in the World Trade Center were issued special hats to make them easily identified in an emergency.
Context: Fire and emergency training is especially important in a high-rise building. As part of his job, Michael Hurley, World Trade Center Fire Director, distributed hats, whistles, and flashlights to all the building floor wardens and was responsible for developing and implementing emergency training procedures.
On September 11, Hurley considered staying home to walk his son to the first day of kindergarten, but his wife thought it might make the boy even more nervous. Instead, Hurley went to work, and he soon had to deal with the disaster of a lifetime. As the liaison to the fire department, he worked side by side with the chief in the Fire Command Center in the lobby of the north tower, providing information on stairway configurations, evacuations, and firefighting resources.
As the situation worsened, Hurley was directed to seek a new site for the command center. He was in this location, away from the north tower when it collapsed.
This silver teaspoon has raised collars at each end of its handle. This spoon was part of the collection of dinnerware used in the "Windows on the World" restaurant located on the 107th floor, Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. The teaspoon survived because the owner of the restaurant had taken the restaurant's place settings home for a private function.
This bag contains a synthetic cadaver scent to help keep search dogs on their task. This cadaver scent bag was used at the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001 by Trooper Rick Scranton and his German shepherd, Theo, from the New York State Police K-9 Unit. The bag is a soiled white canvas pouch that has a Velcro closure at the top of the bag.
Description: This firefighter's pry bar, known as an officer’s tool, was carried by New York Fire Department's Lt. Kevin Pfeifer, who was killed in the World Trade Center collapse.
Context: When the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, the New York Fire Department immediately responded. Officers set up a command center in the lobby of the north tower and sent firefighters up the stairs to rescue the trapped occupants and extinguish the raging fires. When the towers collapsed, numerous trucks were crushed, and 343 members of the New York Fire Department were killed, including Lt. Kevin Pfeifer.
Colonel Mark Volk's uniform beret was left on his desk while he helped clear areas in the Pentagon. The eagle insignia, now tarnished and discolored, shows heat damage from the fire.
Description: This damaged structural bracket from the World Trade Center was recovered from the debris pile.
Context: This viscoelastic damper connected a floor truss to an exterior steel column of the World Trade Center. Building movement caused by wind was a major concern to the architects and engineers designing the 110-story towers. They cleverly mitigated apparent building movement by using these dampers to allow the exterior of the building to sway slightly under wind load, while the floor remained largely stationary.
The damper and other floor attachment brackets were also a point of failure leading to the towers' collapse. When the intense fire heated the 60 foot-long floor trusses, they eventually distorted and pulled free of their attachments to the exterior columns. As the upper floors of the towers fell, the weight then “pancaked” the lower floors, breaking floor truss attachments unaffected by heat. Each of these huge towers collapsed in about ten seconds.
Description: This identification card was carried by Lt. Robert Cirri, a Port Authority Police officer, who died in the World Trade Center attack.
Context: After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Port Authority Police Department officers from around New York City rushed to the scene to aid in the evacuation. They directed the building tenants to safe exit routes and began to search the building for people in need of help.
Rober Cirri and four fellow Officers, Chief James Romito, Capt. Kathy Mazza, officers James Parham, Stephen Huczko, and Paul Laszczynski, were killed in the collapse of the north tower as they carried a woman, incapable of using the stairs, in an evacuation chair. The Port Authority Police Department lost thirty-seven officers in the attacks on the World Trade Center.