Photo by Carolina Salguero

Two years ago we posted about the largely overlooked maritime evacuation of lower Manhattan on 9/11.  With the bridges and tunnels shut down, between 350,000 and 500,000 people were evacuated by water in just a few hours. It was the largest maritime evacuation since Dunkirk and has gone largely unreported in the media.    Now on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11attacks, PortSide NewYork is mounting a multi-media exhibit  (photography, videos and oral history) about the extraordinary and little-known maritime role in 9/11, from evacuation to rubble removal.

The exhibit and presentations will be held on the historic 1933 U.S. Lighthouse Tender Lilac docked at Hudson River Park’s Pier 25 in Manhattan.   The exhibit opens Thursday, September 8th and will feature presentations by Carolina Salguero, photojournalist on 9/11 and now Director of PortSide NewYork and engineer and journalist Jessica DuLong, who was chief engineer of retired New York City Fireboat John J. Harvey, the first fireboat to respond at Ground Zero on on 9/11.

PortSide NewYork is a waterfront-themed non-profit organization. More about the exhibit here.