Remembering 9/11

Revitalization seemed almost inconceivable at the time the grey powdery ash was floating through the air, thick with the smell of acrid smoke still rising from the rubble. It made your eyes sting for months..In less than two hours on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Lower Manhattan, the world’s financial district and bustling home to hundreds of thousands of workers each day, was transformed into a ghost town.Hundreds of companies doing business in the neighborhood were forced out by the terrorist attacks that felled the twin World Trade Center towers and hundreds more left on their own in the aftermath.An estimated 14,000 businesses were impacted in some way or another. Many lost their power and phone service for extended periods, others saw their entrances blocked for week or months by debris removal and construction. And just about everyone lost customers.In all, a total of 754 companies disappeared from Lower Manhattan in the two years following the attacks, according to statistics c...

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