The Burger King Location That Played An Important Role On 9/11
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, triggered a response that was urgent and widespread, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency spending a total of $970 million responding to the crisis, details New York Magazine. At the same time, the unprecedented situation required resourcefulness to ensure the safety of those affected by the attacks.
This was clearly demonstrated by a photograph published on Reddit. The image, uploaded by u/Jarl_of_Kamurocho, showed officers wearing blue New York Police Department jackets and white hard hats, walking toward a damaged Burger King restaurant with "NYPD temp. HQ" scrawled over the entrance in red paint. A map could be seen attached to one side of the building, which was covered in dust and had missing windows. "Desperate times, desperate measures," was one Redditor's summary of the scene, with another describing it as "touching."
NewsNation shows the same Burger King being used as a temporary NYPD headquarters on September 12, clarifying the location to be 106 Liberty Street near Ground Zero. As well as serving as a short-term police station, the Burger King had other vital uses.
The Burger King was also used as a medical facility and a morgue
The testimony of a firefighter in "An Eerie Silence: An Oral History of Newark Firefighters at the WTC" reveals that the second floor of the Liberty Street Burger King was shared between the Newark Fire Department and NYPD's bomb and arson squad. The firefighter details working on "the pile," sifting through rubble looking for people in need of help.
An article by The Phoblographer suggests the Burger King was used as a makeshift medical triage center by volunteer health professionals for a week after September 11. The restaurant was also shortly used as a morgue before becoming a medical support hub and respite point for rescue workers, notes SILive.
106 Liberty Street wasn't the only help Burger King gave during the September 11 attacks. Centraljersey.com reports that workers at a Burger King restaurant on Maiden Lane, approximately two blocks from where the Twin Towers stood, used the location in the immediate aftermath of the attacks to give people shelter, water, and dust masks. The report also notes that Burger King set up a kitchen to distribute hamburgers to rescue workers and helped to raise money to provide support to those affected by 9/11.