STUNNED:
Rescuers help a victim after the explosion in the World Trade Center
garage
Feb. 26, 1993
The Foreshadowing of 9/11
By Howard Lutnick
The bomb
went off shortly after noon and shook the building like an earthquake.
Our offices on the top floors of 1 World Trade Center (the north tower)
went dark. No one knew what had happened, but within minutes the
emergency lights kicked on and our 700 employees at Cantor Fitzgerald
calmly headed for the stairs. The stairway quickly became a traffic jam
as 20,000 workers on lower floors were also evacuating that cold
February day, but the Cantor folks didn't panic. Some of them lashed
their ties and belts to the wheelchairs of handicapped people and
carried them down the 105 flights of stairs. Others helped those who
were unable to walk unaided down to the 25th floor where fire fighters,
who were on their way up to help, took over. We all made it out.
Americans were not accustomed
to what so much of the world had already grown weary of: the sudden,
deafening explosion of a car bomb, a hail of glass and debris, the
screams of innocent victims ... And then last week, in an instant, the
World Trade Center in New York City became ground zero ...
—March 8, 1993
As we look back
now on the 1993 attack, in which six people were killed and more than a
thousand were injured when a terrorist bomb exploded in an unoccupied
van in the Trade Center's underground garage, it's clear that for many
of us the event was a false ceiling on the limits of terror. We thought
at the time the attack was a warning to be prepared. And so, Cantor
Fitzgerald and the other tenants and building managers of the World
Trade Center tried to prepare. We took what we thought were exhaustive
efforts to safeguard ourselves from any future incidents. Security at
ground level and below was tightened. Stairways were rebuilt to make it
easier for police and fire fighters to enter. Many businesses, including
ours, worked on detailed disaster-recovery plans in the event we lost
our buildings. And then life went on. Somewhere in the consciousness of
those of us who worked in the Trade Center was the belief that
terrorists, like lightning, would not strike the same place twice.
When it did, on Sept. 11, our preparations were not in vain. The added
measures no doubt saved the lives of thousands of people who evacuated
safely. Yet to a tragic extent, we had erected defenses against the
past. We could not have foreseen the horror and destruction that Cantor
Fitzgerald, New York City and our nation would experience. We lost more
than anyone could have imagined. In the months following Sept. 11, our
employees committed to rebuilding with a new purpose: to care for the
families of the 658 victims we lost. We announced on Sept. 19, 2001,
that we would distribute a quarter of our company's profits to these
families for a period of five years, and cover 10 years of health care.
We can never regain what was taken from us that day, but we keep the
memory of our friends in our hearts and their families by our side.
Lutnick is chairman and CEO of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald
TIME Cover
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