Alfred Farrugio, Horticulturalist, Ellis Island
Interviewed by Mark Schoepfle, Ph.D., Cultural Anthropologist
January 30, 2002 at Ellis Island

MARK SCHOEPFLE: Keep going.

ALFRED FARRUGIO: …I went outside and just saw flames coming out of one of the towers. The first tower had been hit. And I kept looking at it and there were a lot of people outside there. And even looking at that I just thought, well, they'll put it out. … Everything will be fine. … we were watching after that for about 8 minutes, 10 minutes, and the second plane flew over Ellis Island. And it was so low and made so much noise - and this I'll never forget, the feeling of that plane coming over us and just being so low, so fast and making so much noise and flying towards the second tower. But … my mind would not believe that it was going to go hit the tower. And even as it approached that tower, I didn't believe that it was going to go into the tower, hit it. …

But even when it went into the tower - and it just went in like cutting through water. It was just absorbed by that - by the building. It just cut right into it. Before any flames, it just went right in, which was amazing. And the thing that amazed me so much was that my mind wouldn't even accept that. It was sort of like a defense mechanism not to accept that as reality, which was unbelievable. The plane went in and I thought I was watching a film. I just couldn't believe it as reality. It went in, the explosion, the flames. Again it was all a film I was watching. It wasn't really reality. And for me, it just wasn't something that I accepted immediately that it actually happened. It actually had a delayed reaction that this all happened.

And … we all had moved to the flagpole area on Ellis Island thinking that would be an area where … the whole park staff would be out of the buildings in case anything happened … We were out by the flagpole area just comforting each other. … one of the things that actually struck me at this moment, being out there … just watching the flames and …all the smoke, was that every single seagull that's on the island that are usually flying all around the buildings, flying around the patio area looking for food, every single bird was on the ground. Just their reaction to it was so - they knew something wrong, terribly wrong was going on. Every gull was just huddled down into itself, its head pulled back into its body, not moving, not being stirred up and flying. They were all just totally still - is one of the things that stuck.

MARK SCHOEPFLE: Tucked into their wings.

ALFRED FARRUGIO: Yeah. Just seeing their reaction. … I'm the horticulturist here and just dealing with some of the plant issues, some of the lawns, just I remember that morning before this all happened that that was my focus. And then just being turned totally around where that became so insignificant was another striking impression. That was just totally, totally insignificant because of what was going on. And I think one of the things as we're adjusting of what happened that day was that everything that was important to me, you know, again the plants on the islands and managing the grounds, all just collapsed. It was no longer important. I think a lot of people felt this, that what they actually do here was no longer important. Everything now was important as far as being safe and security. So that was a devastating, devastating feeling that everything that I represent, everything that I can provide here is no longer important.

… And I think a lot of that and actually a good thing I stayed - I remember they asked if people wanted to stay on Ellis Island and help set up a triage center. And I said "Yes, I'll stay." And I remember being here until about 6 that night and never even knowing how I would ever even get home. But it was really, I think, good because …I was so wrapped up in trying to help set up the triage center. And then as people came over - they just swooped up people from Battery Park and were bringing them here and bringing people that were injured and all full of dust and just helping. I was giving out water practically all afternoon and just comforting people that were coming over. …Before people actually came, we were hauling out - we were coming into the building pulling out, you know, stretchers and materials and bandages and things like that and setting them up on the front lawn. Again, we were thinking lots of people were going to be coming and that this was going to be going on all night. …

MARK SCHOEPFLE: And so… you were sort of working under the apprehension that all these - of all these rumors that every other place was getting hit that looked important, yours would be hit too?

ALFRED FARRUGIO: … Certainly we thought the statue would be hit and we thought Ellis Island would be hit too. So there was this sense of fear and a kind of - any kind of threat we were kind of scared. And this was really shown in the fact that at one point while we were all at the flagpole area watching the towers and then at one point the first tower coming down … But … a small motorboat [was] … coming towards Ellis Island real fast. And everybody saw that, and we thought - I don't think anybody even said it, but we all thought the same thing, they were coming with bombs and they were going to attack us. And we all just started running. Everybody just started running away from the corner of the flagpole towards the western end of the island, until somehow the Coast Guard intercepted them and stopped them or whatever. But that's just how jittery we were. We were just on edge.

September 11, 2001 Oral History Documentation Project
Northeast Region, National Park Service

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