The Woman Who Walked Down 87 Floors On the morning of September 11, 2001, Joanne “JoJo” Capestro went to work on the 87th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower. At 8:46 a.m., everything changed. Joanne escaped by taking the stairs, passing firefighters heading upward as office workers rushed down. One of her coworkers, Harry Ramos, stopped to help a struggling stranger and never made it out. Joanne did. Minutes later, covered in dust after the collapse of the South Tower, she walked through Lower Manhattan and unknowingly crossed paths with photographer Phil Penman. He took her picture. They didn't know each other's names. Fifteen years later, the 9/11 Memorial Museum finally connected the photographer with the woman in his photograph. But their story still wasn't over.

When Flight 11 struck the North Tower, Port Authority accountant John Abruzzo could not evacuate by stairs. Ten coworkers placed him in an emergency chair installed after the 1993 bombing and carried him down 69 floors. Their documented escape—and the chair now preserved by the 9/11 Museum—reveals how preparation, disability inclusion, and an extraordinary decision made before the tower fell changed eleven lives.