PortSide NewYork content about "Mariners' Response to 9/11"

The 9/11 boatlift and other stories

PortSide’s credentials relating to this content

PortSide created a multimedia exhibit about this content on the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011 since this content had not been covered in the media. By the 20th anniversary, there was a surge in coverage of this; by the 25th, the boatlift story has been getting a lot of attention. More about the exhibit on our 2nd 9/11 webpage. We have been adding content over the years. We welcome talking to people who are creating exhibits, articles, and videos about this content.

When 9/11 happened, PortSide’s founder and Executive Director Carolina Salguero was a photojournalist doing a story on tugboats in NYC, and she got to the World Trade Center in her own powerboat from Red Hook, Brooklyn. She has committed PortSide to growing understanding of the important role of the maritime industry on that day and following days, weeks, months and years. Her commitment also has a forward-looking purpose: conveying what the maritime response to the attacks tells us about how NYC should be planning its waterfront differently with more #piers4boats. She curated the exhibit.

The story in short

On 9/11, local mariners were responsible for an evacuation greater than Dunkirk. It was initially thought that between 350,000 and 500,000 people were transported from lower Manhattan by boat; but by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Coast Guard said 750,000 was a more accurate number. In contrast, the evacuation of Dunkirk took 9 days to move just under 350,000. There were 4 aspects to mariner's response to 9/11:

1. boatlift evacuation,

2. supply and support of ground zero,

3. removal of rubble by tug and barge,

4. two years of interim ferries.

Boatlift Evacuation - Greater than Dunkirk

The Manhattan effort was begun spontaneously by civilian boat operators - a key difference between Dunkirk and Manhattan on 9/11. The 9/11 boatlift is a story of fast-moving ingenuity, courage and generosity of spirit. The Coast Guard and Sandy Hook Pilots soon joined the effort, and all sectors of the marine community rapidly became involved. Within hours, more than 150 boats operated on scene. A list of the boats involved in the evacuation is here. This was last updated 10/23/23. The video below covers this well in 12 gripping mintues. Salguero was a content advisor on this.

The marine industry evacuated people, and immediately began bringing in personnel, supplies, fuel, and both potable and firefighting water. The retired fireboat JOHN J. HARVEY had been evacuating people, but the FDNY spotted the boat, asked them if they could still pump, and then recruited them. The HARVEY joined other fireboats and pumped harbor water to firetrucks which could not get water from the broken water mains. Dinner boats provided floating cafeterias and sleeping quarters.

All photos in slide show below are (c) Carolina Salguero 2001 except the photo from the fireboat John J. Harvey and some of the photos in the exhibit panel which are mostly Salguero’s images, but not all.

Removal Of Rubble By Tug And Barge

In 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration released 9/11 records that confirm the toxicity of Ground Zero dust AND that the City government had suppressed that info and claimed the air was safe. People had demanded these records for years. Confirmation of that toxicity underlines the importance of what the marine industry did in convincing the City to remove the rubble by water not truck. That plan reduced the clean-up time from 2 years to 8 months and kept trucks from distributing toxic dust along their travel routes. The tug and barge crew moving the rubble were exposed to the dust; however, and some got sick.

The City agreed to the maritime rubble removal plan, and the marine industry (Weeks Marine and the US Army Corps working together) dredged two emergency barge ports, and Weeks then loaded all the WTC rubble onto barges and hauled those away with their tugboats (2,400 barges that kept 93,346 truck trips off the road), except for the ritual removal of “the last column” which left by truck. Mike Mazzei, working on the Pier 25, Hudson River Park rubble removal site felt that their work was invisible in a ceremony that used a truck - and the role of mariners in general had not been reported at that point, so he created the video below to show the work they did.

Two Years Of Interim Ferries

An evolving system of emergency and temporary ferries and ferry terminals was created and ran for two years until PATH train service was restored.

There’s much more content on our 2nd 9/11 webpage.

PortSide sees lessons for the future in all this 

9/11 underlined that Manhattan is an island; and in creating our exhibit, PortSide NewYork made the point that the maritime 9/11 story has workaday implications for New York City as it develops new plans for its waterfront. Those lessons were in word strips in several exhibit rooms. Key among those lessons are:

• recognize the importance of the working waterfront (many revitalization efforts devalue the industry and squeeze it out)

• design the edge between land and sea so it is more boat-friendly

• design the edge to be multi-purpose so it can serve during emergencies

• create more #piers4boats

• the lack of waterfront reporters at the time (and still) meant the maritime story was not told at the time and still is not widely known.

• The National September 11 Museum itself does not give much space to the mariners' role, just a little nook, and only covers the boatlift aspect of the response; until in 2023, they decided to have a monitor playing the video Boatlift in the lobby.  The museum has a special exhibit that covers the 9/11 day itself. Within that, there is a long horizontal timeline which displays what was happening in the air on top and what was happening on the land below. We believe the huge maritime story should be on that timeline too.

This was not the last time marine industry helped. It provided emergency services again with the ferry evacuation of Manhattan during the 2003 blackout, responding to the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson” landing in the river of US Airways Flight 1549, and in various ways during and after 2012’s hurricane Sandy.

Tour PortSide’s 2011 exhibit via slideshow below