Depending on the year you were born, images of the burning World Trade Centre may be something you’ll only witness through documentaries, old news reports and photographs.
The 9/11 attacks have changed American history forever (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
These are usually accompanied with a full explanation of what happened in the lead up the attacks as well as the aftermath, which means anyone who wasn’t alive or old enough on the fateful day can be clued up on what happened pretty quickly.
Despite the internet having no shortage of evidence related to the 11 September attacks, none of them are quite able to capture the sheer terror of what it would’ve been like to watch it unfold in real time.
Just remember we’re talking about an age before smart phones and social media, which means people will have largely been relying on conventional news reports and word of mouth for their information.
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One video which manages to perfectly capture the terror felt across the city is a homemade recording which was created by Caroline Dries, an American TV writer who was studying in the city and saw the incident from the window of her dorm room.
Watch the horrifying footage she captured below (WARNING: distressing content):
“No way… what is that,” she can be heard saying, with another initially saying: “Thank god it’s not a terrorist attack.”
The harrowing video also shows the moment one of the women in the apartment realises there are people falling from the building just seconds before a second plane hits the South Tower – causing one of the women to panic and attempt to flee their accommodation after a realisation about what’s happening.
Caroline Dries later spoke about the capturing the footage in an interview with CNN (CNN/Caroline Dries)
Another clip taken later on then shows the group back in the apartment and drinking apple juice and joking about vodka just before the towers begin to fall.
The friends can then be heard screaming as a cloud of smoke rapidly approaches their building. “Shut the window, shut the window,” one of the women can be heard shouting as the video cuts off.
Take a look:
The screenwriter – who has worked on shows such as The Vampire Diaries and Batwoman – later recalled her experiences in an interview with CNN and explained the ‘pandemonium’ on the streets that day.
“People want to remember the details,” she said. “Sometimes I think it would be nice to have not filmed it, just have run [and] for time to have erased it and moved on a little faster.”
