Following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

in New York City, many people were unable to leave Lower Manhattan due to the closure of bridges and tunnels and

mass transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

. Within minutes of the first plane hitting the first tower, multiple

fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipmen ...

s from the

New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), is an American department of the government of New York City that provides fire protection services, technical rescue/special operations services, ...

rushed to the scene. The

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

coordinated a large

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are u ...

tugboats A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...

, and

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

to evacuate the stranded and injured victims. More than 150 different vessels and 600 sailors helped evacuate victims and delivered supplies in the days following the attacks. According to the

Commandant of the Coast Guard The commandant of the Coast Guard is the service chief and highest-ranking member of the United States Coast Guard. The commandant is an admiral, appointed for a four-year term by the president of the United States upon confirmation by the Uni ...

James Loy James Milton Loy (born August 10, 1942) is a retired admiral of the United States Coast Guard who served as the acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security in 2005 and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) from November 4, 2003, to Ma ...

, the mass evacuation of more than 500,000 civilians following the attacks "moved more people from the island than the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from France."

Background

Following the second plane crash into South Tower, the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized ...

closed all of the bridges and tunnels under their jurisdiction. The

MTA Bridges and Tunnels The Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority (TBTA), trade name, doing business as MTA Bridges and Tunnels, is an affiliate agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that operates seven toll bridges and two tunnels in New York City. In t ...

also closed their crossings into Manhattan for at least a day after the attacks. As a result, many people were either stranded in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

or tried to evacuate via East Rivers crossings, like the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...

. The United States Coast Guard New York Sector closed the New York Harbor to all ship movements. After the collapse of the South Tower, many evacuees began to arrive at the Lower Hudson River piers to try and evacuate.

Response

USACE Patrol Boat Hocking heads toward lower Manhattan on 9-11

Coast Guard and government response

The United States Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service and the Harbor Unit of the New York Police Department put out an emergency radio calls to all nearby vessels to help evacuate from

Battery Park The Battery, formerly known as Battery Park, is a public park located at the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City facing New York Harbor. It is bounded by Battery Place on the north, State Street on the east, New York Harbor to ...

. In addition to vessel coordination, the Coast Guard assisted at the

Fresh Kills Landfill The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Staten Island in the United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western State ...

and Lower Manhattan with human remain and property recovery operations. Some U.S. Coast Guard ships that responded included cutters , , and . After the attacks on the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard tug , homeported in

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula located between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. As of ...

, was the first on scene in New York harbor and acted as On-Scene Commander. ''Adak'' arrived on scene an hour later and took over On-Scene Commander responsibilities. For hours ''Adak'' coordinated the evacuation of civilians, transport of firefighters and rescue personnel, and the establishment of security zones to protect other high valued assets from further attack. For her part in the response to the attacks of September 11, ''Adak'' received the Secretary of Transportation Outstanding Unit Award. Multiple

s of the

, including ''Fire Fighter'' and the retired (since 1995) ''

John J. Harvey ''John J. Harvey'' is a fireboat formerly of the New York City Fire Department in New York City, famed for returning to service following the September 11, 2001 attacks. She is among the most powerful fireboats ever built, capable of pumping up ...

'', were among the first boats on the scene and provided firefighting activities from the water, pumping harbour water at high pressure to the hoses of land-based firefighters when other water was in low supply or simply unavailable due to breaks in the waterlines caused by the destruction of the towers.

Civilian response

Multiple ferry lines, including the

Staten Island Ferry The Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry route operated by the New York City Department of Transportation. The ferry's single route runs through New York Harbor between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island, with ferry ...

and SeaStreak, helped in the evacuation. A variety of vessels including tugboats and merchant ships in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...

responded to the emergency calls for evacuations.

Aftermath

Multiple news outlets praised the maritime coordination and evacuation.

Norman Mineta Norman Yoshio Mineta ( ja, 峯田良雄, November 12, 1931 – May 3, 2022) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Mineta served in the United States Cabinet for Presidents Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a ...

, the

Secretary of Transportation A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...

in a hearing in front of the

National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", includin ...

said the response was the "largest maritime evacuation conducted in the history of the United States". In 2011, a documentary called ''Boatlift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience'' was released detailing the stories of boat crews responding to the evacuations. It was narrated by

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

. As part of the 20th anniversary commemoration, the New York Council Navy League of the United States honored the maritime operators for their heroism in "the Great Boatlift of 9/11".

References

{{September 11 attacks Aftermath of the September 11 attacks Hudson River Water transportation in New York City Maritime history of New York (state)