Marriott World Trade Center - September 11, 2001 Attacks

September 11, 2001 Attacks

On September 11, 2001, the hotel was at full capacity, and had over 1,000 registered guests. In addition, the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) was holding its yearly conference at the hotel.

When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower (1 WTC), the landing gear fell into the roof of the Marriott hotel. There were many eyewitness accounts from firefighters who went up the stairs in the Marriott Hotel to the second floor. Firefighters used the lobby as the staging area, and were also in the hotel to evacuate guests that may have still been in the hotel. Firefighters also reported bodies on the roof from the people that had jumped or fallen from the burning towers. The collapse of the South Tower (2 WTC) split the hotel in half (such damage can briefly be seen in the documentary film 9/11), and the collapse of the North Tower destroyed the rest of the hotel aside from a small section (as seen on the picture) that was furthest from the north tower. Fourteen people who had been trying to evacuate the partially destroyed hotel after the first collapse managed to survive the second collapse in this small section. The section of the hotel that had managed to survive the collapse of the Twin Towers had been upgraded after the 1993 bombing.

As a result of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the hotel was destroyed. Only the south part of three stories of the building were still standing, all of which were gutted. In the remnants of the lobby, picture frames with the pictures were still hanging on the walls. Approximately 40 people died in the hotel, including two hotel employees and many firefighters who were using the hotel as a staging ground. In January 2002, the remnants of the hotel were completely dismantled. The building and its survivors were featured in the television special documentary film Hotel Ground Zero, which premiered on September 11, 2009 on the History Channel.