Lost and Found

The September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, left behind an almost incomprehensible amount of destruction — but also an extraordinary collection of objects that somehow survived. In the years following the attacks, recovery workers, historians, and everyday people have worked tirelessly to identify, preserve, and in many cases return these items to the families they belonged to. What follows is a look at 20 remarkable things that were lost in the chaos of that day and, against considerable odds, found again.

San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives on Wikimedia

1. The Survivors' Staircase

One of the most physically significant remnants of the World Trade Center is a set of stairs that once connected the complex to Vesey Street, now commonly known as the Survivors' Staircase. Hundreds of people used these very steps to escape the towers before they collapsed, making the staircase one of the most emotionally loaded pieces of concrete in American history. It's now preserved and displayed at the 9/11 Memorial Museum in Lower Manhattan, where visitors can see it up close.

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2. Robert Gschaar's Wallet and Wedding Ring

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 55-year-old Robert Joseph Gschaar was working on the 92nd floor of the South Tower when the attack occurred; he called his wife Myrta to reassure her he'd get out safely, but he didn't survive. A year after the attacks, his wallet and wedding ring were recovered from the site. He and Myrta had carried $2 bills throughout their 11-year marriage as a private symbol of their bond—two of a kind—and that detail now lives on through the museum's collection.

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3. The Last Column

Officially designated as the Last Column, this 58-ton steel beam was the final piece of structural material removed from Ground Zero during the recovery effort on May 30, 2002. Littered on the colum is messages, graffiti, and other mementos and tributes, making it a deeply personal artifact before it was ever formally preserved. It now stands as the centerpiece of the 9/11 Memorial Museum's historical exhibition.

The Pancake of Heaven! on Wikimedia

4. Linda Raisch-Lopez's Stained Heels

On the morning of September 11, Linda Raisch-Lopez was wearing a new pair of patent leather heels when she arrived at her office on the 97th floor of the South Tower; after seeing flames bursting from the North Tower, she slipped her shoes off and made her way down the emergency stairwell barefoot. She put them back on somewhere during her walk uptown, and it wasn't until she reached a pier on the Hudson that another woman pointed out her bleeding feet. She donated the stained shoes to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where they remain one of the most striking survivor artifacts in the collection.

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5. The Vesey Street Bible

Recovered from the rubble of Ground Zero, the Vesey Street Bible is a small, charred fragment of scripture that had fused to a piece of metal during the extreme heat of the collapse. The surviving page displays text from Matthew 5:39: "But I say to you, ‘Do not resist one who is evil.’ But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." The artifact is now part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum's permanent collection.

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6. FDNY Firefighter Helmets

Several helmets belonging to members of the New York City Fire Department were recovered from the site in the months following the attacks, and the museum holds at least 17 of them in its collection. One of the most documented belongs to firefighter Kevin M. Prior of Squad 252, and another to David Halderman, whose crushed helmet was found on September 12 and given to his brother Michael. The FDNY lost 343 members on September 11, the largest loss of life for a fire department in a single incident in American history.

Rubyhdz15 on Wikimedia

7. Rosemary Smith's Sapphire Ring

Rosemary Smith had survived the 1993 World Trade Center bombing while working as a telephone operator for a law firm on the 57th floor of the North Tower, and she bought herself a gold and sapphire ring as both a reward for surviving and an incentive to return to work at the site she feared. She stayed behind on September 11 to forward calls to the answering machine while her colleagues evacuated, and she was the only one in her company who didn't make it out. Her ring was recovered from Fresh Kills Landfill with her remains, returned to her family, and later donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where it's currently on display.

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8. The National 9/11 Flag

The large American flag found tattered and blowing in the wind at Ground Zero shortly after the attacks was taken down by construction superintendent Charlie Vitchers about a month after September 11, and it eventually became the centerpiece of a national restoration project. Over the course of several years and a 50-state tour, volunteers—including wounded veterans, schoolchildren, and members of Congress—stitched patches from decommissioned American flags into its fabric to restore it. The flag was transferred to the 9/11 Memorial Museum and went on public display in 2015.

SECWAR on Wikimedia

9. The PAPD Baseball Cap of Officer James Francis Lynch

Port Authority Police Department Officer James Francis Lynch was 47 years old and off-duty on September 11, recovering from surgery, but he responded to the attacks anyway, feeling that it was his duty. He didn't survive. His baseball cap, bearing his department, was the only thing recovered and stands as one of many tributes to the 37 Port Authority officers killed that day.

Youngking11 on Wikimedia

10. Karyn Ramsey's Flight Attendant Wings Pin

Sara Elizabeth Low was a 28-year-old American Airlines flight attendant who was killed aboard Flight 11 when it struck the North Tower, and her colleague and close friend Karyn Ramsey honored her at her memorial service by pinning her own American Airlines service wings onto Sara's father, Mike Low. Mike Low came to refer to the small silver lapel pin as "Karyn's wings." The pin was later donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum to commemorate Sara.

San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives on Wikimedia

11. Andrea Haberman's Pager and Wallet

Andrea Haberman was just 25 years old, about to be married, and visiting New York City for work when she was killed on the 92nd floor of the North Tower during a business meeting at Carr Futures. Her damaged wallet, pager, phone, driver's license, and visitor ID were recovered and passed to her family in 2004 through a meeting arranged by the NYPD; her father kept them locked in a drawer for seven years before the family donated them to the museum in 2011. The visitor ID, bearing the last photo taken of her, is among the most quietly devastating items in the collection.

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12. The World Trade Center Cross

Two intersecting steel beams that fell in the shape of a cross were discovered by construction worker Frank Silecchia on September 13, 2001, and quickly became a focal point for workers seeking solace during the recovery effort. The cross was blessed by Franciscan friar Father Brian Jordan and stood at Ground Zero for years before being moved to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where it remains a significant artifact for many visitors.

Diether on Wikimedia

13. The FDNY Ladder Company 3 Fire Truck

The FDNY Ladder Company 3 truck is one of the most documented and emotionally significant artifacts in the 9/11 Memorial Museum's collection, its front cab crushed and mangled from the collapse of the towers. All 12 members of Ladder 3 who responded that morning were killed, and the truck was lowered into the museum by crane in July 2011 ahead of the museum's opening.

Chepry 💬 (Andrzej Barabasz) 📷 🇵🇱 on Wikimedia

14. Brian Sweeney's Voicemail

Voicemail messages left by victims in the final minutes of their lives are among the most devastating artifacts preserved at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, and one of the most documented is the message passenger Brian Sweeney left for his wife Julie Roth from aboard United Airlines flight 175 before it struck the South Tower. Some of these recordings have been shared publicly, while others remain private at the request of the families involved. The museum worked closely with families to determine how, and whether, these messages would be included in the historical record.

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15. The Iconic Ground Zero Flag

At roughly 5 p.m. on September 11, three firefighters raised an American flag above the smoldering ruins at Ground Zero, and the moment was captured by photographer Thomas E. Franklin in an image that circled the globe. The flag had been taken from a yacht belonging to Shirley Dreifus and her late husband Spiros Kopelakis, which was docked at the World Financial Center, and it vanished shortly after the photograph was taken. Thirteen years later, the flag was recovered in 2014 and, after a forensic investigation confirming its authenticity, donated to the 9/11 Memorial Museum by Dreifus and insurance company Chubb, where it went on display for the 15th anniversary in 2016.

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16. Sean Rooney's Woodworking Tools

Sean Rooney was a vice president at Aon Corp. who died on the 105th floor of the South Tower, but his family wanted people to know him not through his professional title but as the weekend carpenter, handyman, and Habitat for Humanity volunteer he was at heart. His sister-in-law Margot Eckert donated his woodworking square, screwdriver, pry bar, and toolbelt to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, describing the collection of carpenter's tools as the perfect representation of the man. His wife Beverly Eckert, who survived him, died in a plane crash in 2009 while traveling to Rooney's high school in Buffalo to present a scholarship in his honor.

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17. The Survivor Tree

The Callery pear tree that stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center was severely damaged in the attacks, with snapped roots and burned and broken branches, and it was discovered by recovery workers in the rubble in October 2001. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation took it in, nursed it back to health over several years, and returned it to the memorial site in 2010, where it now stands as the Survivor Tree. Each year, the memorial distributes seedlings grown from the tree to communities across the country that have experienced tragedy of their own.

PumpkinSky on Wikimedia

18. Robert Chin's Signed Softball

Robert Chin loved softball and played for his employer, Fiduciary Trust International, and when he got his first hit, his coworkers signed the ball and gave it to him as a keepsake—many of those same coworkers also died on September 11. Chin was killed in the attacks, and his family donated the signed ball to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where it sits among the collection of personal artifacts that speak to who people were outside their offices. The names of Pedro Francisco Checo and Ruben Esquilin Jr. are among those on the ball, two of Chin's colleagues who also perished that day.

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19. The Sphere Sculpture

Fritz Koenig's large bronze sculpture, known as The Sphere, once stood in the World Trade Center Plaza as a symbol of world peace, and it was recovered from the rubble after the attacks with significant damage but still largely intact. The sculpture was moved to Battery Park, where it was placed on temporary display as a memorial, and it was later moved to its permanent home at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza's Liberty Park in 2017. The dents and tears in its surface are preserved exactly as they were found, a deliberate choice to honor what the piece has come to represent.

Stephan Kambor-Wiesenberg from Stuttgart, Deutschland on Wikimedia

20. A World Trade Center Souvenir Ornament

On the evening of September 18, 2001, NYPD Detective Steve Steo rappelled into a deep void at Ground Zero while searching for his two close friends, Joseph Vigiano of the NYPD and his older brother, FDNY Firefighter John Vigiano, both of whom had been reported missing and were later confirmed dead. As he worked his way out of the fallen steel, a glittering and relatively intact souvenir Christmas ornament caught his eye; it depicted the World Trade Center set against a navy, star-speckled sky with the words "Peace on Earth" printed on the reverse. Steo kept the ornament for years before donating it to the 9/11 Memorial Museum in memory of Joseph Vigiano, and it now stands as one of the more quietly striking artifacts in the collection.

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