Jersey City, NJ – Paul Vega remembers exactly what he was doing when the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center as if it were yesterday. Except it was 19 years ago this month.
Vegas was driving an ambulance, with a patient he picked up a few minutes earlier, to Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC), where he was employed as an EMT.
He recalls seeing smoke billowing from the tower, but his two-way radio wasn’t working, and he had no idea what had happened. Like many people in the initial moments after the tower was struck, Vega thought it was an accident – a small plane or news helicopter that had collided with the building.
On the morning of the 9/11 attack, Jersey City photographer Sandra Swieder grabbed her camera and notebook and headed to the waterfront where she captured the heroic rescue and recovery efforts of firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, EMTs and other volunteers. In the days and months that followed, Swieder continued to photograph and collect stories from survivors, witnesses and emergency responders this side of the Hudson.
