Press Release Article

PORT AUTHORITY EXTENDING INITIATIVE TO LOCATE OWNERS OF PHOTOS RECOVERED FROM WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE

Date: Aug 23, 2005
Press Release Number: 91-2005

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is expanding access to a Web site it created earlier this year containing images of about 6,000 personal photos recovered from the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001. The bistate agency hopes to determine the owners of the photos and is extending access to this Web site to employees of former World Trade Center tenants.

The Web site first was made available to family members of the deceased victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and then to Port Authority employees who were headquartered at the World Trade Center. It contains images of photos that were collected from the World Trade Center site after September 11, 2001.

After being recovered, the photos were restored by Kodak employees. Each image – most are personal photographs that people had in their offices – has an identifying number on it. The photos are in the custody of the Property Division of the New York Police Department, which is handling claims for the photos.

Employees of former tenants at the World Trade Center will be able to visit the Web site, which will continue to be password protected.

To access the site, employees of former tenants should log on to www.panynj.gov/wtci and enter a user name and a password. The user name is the first three letters of the individual’s first name and the full last name. Last names must include all spaces, commas, hyphens and/or periods. Entries are not case-sensitive. The password is a combination of the WTC building number and primary floor to which the individual was assigned.

Example: Employee John Smith, who worked in WTC 1 on the 25th floor, would access the site as follows:
•User Name: johsmith.
•Password: 1wtc25

Example: Employee John Smith-Doe Jr., who worked in WTC 2 on the B3 level, would access the site as follows:
•User Name: johsmith-doe jr.
•Password: 2wtcb3

General instructions on how to navigate the site are provided after logging on, and users may sign on to the Web page as many times as necessary to view the images. Questions or concerns should be directed to wtcimages@panynj.gov. A link for instructions to access the Web site can be found at www.panynj.gov.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates many of the busiest and most important transportation links in the region. They include John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia and Teterboro airports; AirTrain JFK and AirTrain Newark; the George Washington Bridge; the Lincoln and Holland tunnels; the three bridges between Staten Island and New Jersey; the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) rapid-transit rail system; the Port Authority Downtown Manhattan Heliport; Port Newark; the Elizabeth-Port Authority Marine Terminal; the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island; the Brooklyn Piers/Red Hook Container Terminal; and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. The agency also owns the 16-acre World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan.

The Port Authority is financially self-supporting and receives no tax revenue from either state.