Filming location of Flight 11 impact footage

This is the location where Jules Naudet filmed footage of the first plane hitting the north tower of the World Trade Center.

It is on the corner of Lispenard Street and Church Street in Manhattan, New York.

In September 2001, French-American filmmakers Jules and Gédéon Naudet were producing a documentary about a firehouse in Lower Manhattan.

On the morning of September 11, Jules accompanied the firefighters to this intersection to investigate reports about a possible gas leak. For the fire crew, it was just a routine inspection.

Normally, Gédéon was the brother who handled the filming. However, Jules had recently started learning how to use a professional camera. In need of practice, he grabbed his equipment and followed Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer to the call.

Moments before 8:46 a.m., the group gathered around a drain on the eastern side of the intersection. Jules stood on Lispenard Street facing west while Pfeifer took readings with a handheld gas detector.

As the fire crew was discussing the findings, the sound of a plane roared overhead, causing them to stop and look up.

Unbeknownst to everyone on the ground, the plane was American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 that had been hijacked by al-Qaeda shortly after taking off from Boston's Logan International Airport.

Initially, Jules continued filming the crew. However, after noticing that everyone had stopped to look up, he pointed his camera at the airliner.

Seconds after he focused his camera on the plane, it crashed into the north tower.

The sound of the explosion boomed through the streets of Manhattan. Shocked onlookers gasped and shouted as they looked up and saw that one of the Twin Towers was engulfed in a giant plume of smoke and flames.

When the initial shock wore off, most people presumed that an accident had just occurred.

However, 17 minutes later, while the entire world watched on television, another large airliner flew across the Hudson River and crashed directly into the south tower.

In that instant, the reality became clear: the United States was under attack.