The September 11 Attacks - Mark LaGanga's footage (editor's cut)

This video contains portions of a private dub of raw footage shot by Mark LaGanga. I complemented the material with footage from the CBS-Net Dub3 folder, which has been released to the public by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I also added a short clip, a bird's-eye view, courtesy of Richard Peskin.Show more

Videographer: Mark LaGanga
Locations: West Street, Vesey Street, Battery Park City, Manhattan, NY
Time: ~10h01:17 a.m. - approx 10h45 a.m. EDT, September 11, 2001.

00:16 »» Mark LaGanga standing with his camera on the top of his sedan at West Street & Chambers Street, and started shooting - a short clip of Richard Peskin's footage;

00:34 »» Tape #1; ~10h01:17 a.m. - ~10h31:34 a.m. EDT

»» 00:34 »» West Street & Chambers Street, just south of Tribeca Bridge;

»» 01:32 »» West Street short of Warren Street;

»» 02:39 »» Running south on West Street between Warren Street and Murray Street;

»» 03:10 »» Running south on West Street between Murray Street and Barclay Street;

»» 03:51 »» West Street & Vesey Street;

»» 04:45 »» Vesey Street between West Street and Washington Street, alongside 6 WTC;

»» 05:05 »» 7 WTC loading dock on Vesey Street, under the Plaza Bridge;

»» 05:35 »» 7 WTC, Vesey Street between the two pedestrian bridges;

»» 06:09 »» Inside 7 WTC;

»» 06:33 »» 7 WTC Main Lobby on the 3rd floor;

»» 09:00 »» Exiting 7 WTC, back on Vesey Street;

»» 09:49 »» Walking around the northwestern corner of 6 WTC, Vesey Street & West Street;

»» 11:43 »» West Street in front of 1 WTC (North Tower) and 3 WTC (Marriott Hotel);

»» 13:50 »» West Street in front of Two World Financial Center, views of 1 WTC & 3 WTC;

»» 16:24 »» West Street in front of Three World Financial Center (American Express Tower);

»» 17:58 »» West Street between Vesey Street and Murray Street, opposite the former 'World Telegram' building, behind that fence, the Goldman Sachs headquarters has been build later;

»» 18:25 »» Collapse of the South Tower (2 WTC) @ 10h28:22 a.m. EDT;

20:52 »» Tape #2, ~10h35 a.m. - ~10h45 a.m. EDT;

»» 20:52 »» Murray Street (Battery Park City) between West Street and North End Avenue, at the former Embassy Suites Hotel, now Conrad NY Downtown Hotel;

»» 23:46 »» North End Avenue north of Murray Street (Battery Park City);

»» 25:42 »» Short detour into Warren Street (Battery Park City);

»» 26:16 »» North End Avenue (Battery Park City);

»» 27:14 »» Chambers Street (Battery Park City) at Stuyvesant High School, walking back to West Street at the Tribeca Bridge;

Mark LaGanga is a photojournalist from New York who has worked primarily for CBS and affiliated producers. Having personally work-experience as a news reporter, I am highly impressed by the extraordinary quality of his work, and by his professionalism. Or, as one unidentified crew-member of one the OB trucks of CBS correctly said @ 20:23 in the dark: "You're just the best!". Consequently, portions of his footage were the very first images from the ground that viewers across the globe have seen on TV, less than half an hour after the second collapse.

I refrain from digital image manipulation. In my opinion, any so-called 'enhancement', as observed in similar video creations elsewhere, is tampering with evidence. I consider this video document as material evidence in the disaster investigation. My objective is to use as much raw footage as ever available for a highly authentic document, and to avoid edited material if possible. I also conserved artifacts 'as is', and the FOIA patches which I may use may have encountered earlier compression losses.
However, I adapted all footage to NTSC standard (SD), doubled the frame rate to 59.94 fps (60000/1001), and tried to restore the audio, if possible, when necessary. Though working with mostly uncompressed footage, this online version is presented in the HEVC/H.265 video compression format.

CBS has created an AI enhanced Premium edition of Mr. LaGanga's footage and used it in a documentary. The present video does not use any of this.

This video has been created for exclusively educational, non-profit purposes. The usage of commercial footage shall be regarded under the conditions of 17 U.S. Code § 17 (Fair use).
Dedicated to the lives lost on September 11, 2001, and in the aftermath of that day. May they rest in Peace.
Thank you for taking the time to inform yourself.