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Electrician took haunting photos from inside World Trade Center in the weeks leading to 9/11

Home> Community> Life

Published 17:22 22 Aug 2023 GMT+1

Electrician took haunting photos from inside World Trade Center in the weeks leading to 9/11

Konstantin Petrov captured the photos after getting a job at a restaurant in the World Trade Center

Emily Brown

Emily Brown

In the weeks before the tragic events of 9/11, an electrician working inside the World Trade Center captured what would turn out to be some of the last photos taken while it was still intact.

Konstantin Petrov, an immigrant from Estonia, was one of thousands of people who worked in the Twin Towers before their collapse in 2001.

Unlike many of the office workers, however, Petrov worked at night, after most other people had gone home.

He worked as an electrician at Windows on the World, the restaurant which sat at the top of the north tower of the World Trade Center, and in the summer of 2001 he took advantage of his unique position to capture hundreds of digital photos from inside the building.

After his shift came to an end at 8.00am, Petrov usually hung around to enjoy a coffee with the workers coming in to start their days. But not on 11 September, 2001.

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That morning, he went to the parking lot in the basement to get his car, and it was as he was driving out that the first plane struck the building.

All Petrov had witnessed was a bit of debris, so he didn't think much of it until he got home and turned on the news.

Petrov's photos were shared on an Estonian site.
Konstantin Petrov / Fotki

After capturing his unique view of the World Trade Center, Petrov shared his photos on an Estonian site called Fotki, and it was there that a researcher came across them while working on a documentary for filmmaker Erik Nelson in 2014.

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The haunting photos offer a view most people will never have seen: the inside of the World Trade Center, before it became the subject of photos capturing the aftermath of the attacks.

He took advantage of his unique position to capture hundreds of digital photos from inside the building.
Konstantin Petrov / Fotki

Petrov's photos show the sun illuminating the interior of the building; the empty restaurant with its tables made up ready for diners; and empty stairwells with waiting elevators.

Viewers have described the photos as 'eerie' and 'beautiful' after they were shared online and posted on TikTok.

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It was Petrov's friend, Dmitri Don, who persuaded him to move to New York in 1998, when Petrov was 25 years old.

The Twin Towers were destroyed on 11 September, 2001.
geralt/Pixabay

He had previously created and sold boxes to hack TV signals from Finland, but after moving to the US he got a student visa, then a green card via marriage.

Recalling Petrov's journey, Don told The New Yorker: “When he got this job at World Trade Center, we were all, like, ‘No way! World Trade Center is, like, so cool.”

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After doing some research into the photographer, Nelson learned that Petrov had died a year after he got the job at Windows on the World, when he flipped his bike on the West Side Highway.

Featured Image Credit: Konstantin Petrov/Fotki/Getty Images

Topics: US News, New York

Emily Brown
Emily Brown

Emily Brown is UNILAD Editorial Lead at LADbible Group. She first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route - before graduating with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University. Emily joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features. She went on to become Community Desk Lead, commissioning and writing human interest stories from across the globe, before moving to the role of Editorial Lead. Emily now works alongside the UNILAD Editor to ensure the page delivers accurate, interesting and high quality content.

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