These 72 photographs of the World Trade Center disaster site in New York City were taken by AP on 3 October 2001, about noon.
The next photos, 019-051, are close-ups of the site looking east and west from the West Side Highway, east to the location of the collapsed World Trade Center and west toward the heavily damaged World Financial Center (WFC) located across the West Side Highway from WTC.
Next Gallery >> (Photo 52-73) 31/03/2022
At the end of this return walk a NYC police officer asked to be shown authorization for taking photographs. AP said there was none. The officer asked how access to the site was gained. AP said I just walked in. Other police officers were consulted, several said this is a crime scene, no photographs allowed.
A NYC police captain was consulted who directed that AP be escorted from the site but that the digital photos need not be confiscated. The captain advised AP to apply for an official permit to photograph the site.
A NYC police officer took AP to New York State police officers nearby who asked to examine the digital camera and view the photographs. Without telling AP, who was being questioned by a State police officer, the photographs were deleted from the camera's compact flash memory chip by another State police officer.
AP was then escorted to the perimeter of the site by yet another NYC police officer who recorded AP's name, and who issued a warning to stay away from the site or face arrest.
(Photo 19-51) From the West Side Highway walking north, looking east to the WTC and west to the World Financial Center (WFC):
