Lower Manhattan resident captures 9/11 destruction in vivid detail

Above: Two photos depict the scene of lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11.  The first photo (left) is an image of Battery Park covered in ash.  The second photo  is the scene at Battery Park Pier as many people tried to leave Manhattan via ferry boats.  (Photos by Hiro Oshima)

The above photographs, taken by New Yorker Hiro Oshima, show the images he saw when he evacuated his lower Manhattan residence on Sept. 11.  The images are now part of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum’s Make History initiative.

Make History is a collective telling of the events of 9/11 through the eyes of those who experienced it, both at the attack sites and around the world.

Oshima has contributed many of the images he captured on Sept. 11 to the Make History archive.  Oshima, who witnessed the collapse of the towers, had moved to lower Manhattan in 1999.  He used to consider Windows on the World, atop the World Trade Center, his “neighborhood bar.”

Oshima, like many others, was evacuated from his building on 9/11.  His photographs show his movement from lower Manhattan to Battery Park and then onto New Jersey.  After Sept. 11, Oshima moved in with his college roommate in the East Village.  It wasn’t until December that his building was accessible.

The Make History archive currently contains more than 1,000 photographs and 300 stories.  Visitors to the site can upload their own pictures, videos and stories about 9/11 and the impact it had globally.

Make History has been recently recognized by an award academy that notes great achievements in the online community.

By Meghan Walsh, Communications Associate for the 9/11 Memorial