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| Andrea Mohin |
"I was hanging there like a marionette."
Mohin has been a staff photographer for the New York Times for 10 years.
When [the towers] got hit, I was at my apartment in Brooklyn. By the time they collapsed, I was on the Brooklyn Bridge, watching it happen.
U.S. marshals had taken control of the bridge and were not letting anyone go [into Manhattan]. I ran up on the pedestrian walkway, trying to get a better view from there. I realized at that point that I needed to be on the roadway, [below the pedestrian walkway]. The exodus of people coming from Manhattan was on the roadway below.
I decided I needed to scale the railings [at the side of the walkway] and jump down [to the roadway]. Stupidly, one of my belt loops got caught, and I was hanging there like a marionette. One of the ash-covered [rescue workers] came and pulled me off. I [then made the decision to] just start shooting from there. Later, I covered the makeshift memorials around the city and the response from the people of New York -- from visitors and tourists as well -- focusing on the poetry that the people have left at these sites.
[An event like this leaves you feeling] raw -- a little cranky, teary. But at the same time, there's a positive side. There is a very strong and renewed sense of fellowship, of togetherness -- love for each other -- that I don't think we had before.
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