9/11 And Its Lasting, Unforeseeable Aftermath

9/11 And Its Lasting, Unforeseeable Aftermath

Share to Linkedin On the evening of September 10, 2001, Forbes was hosting its annual Media Ride, a cruise around Manhattan for New York City's top editors and journalists. As the vessel neared the corner of lower Manhattan, with the impressively lit Twin Towers in the background, guests overwhelmed the photographer with requests for photos of themselves in front of the iconic scene. It was utterly inconceivable that within hours those photos of a happy event would take on an indescribable poignancy and sadness. We all have vivid memories of that terrible day. I was coming into New York by car from New Jersey that morning when news came that a plane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. This was most likely the result of an idiot operator of a small, private aircraft getting too close to the structure, was my initial thought. There wasn't even a thick fog like that, which many years prior to 9/11, had accounted for a plane's crashing into the Empire State Building. We were on the NJ Turnpike extension that leads to the Holland Tunnel. Suddenly there was a sight that my mind couldn't believe: a large, seemingly black (because of the