Remembering 9/11: Robert De Niro on helping revive Lower Manhattan after September 11

September 6, 2026 / 10:08 AM EDT / CBS News

Film legend Robert De Niro has lived or worked in Lower Manhattan for years. "You know, the East Side is another world to someone like me who's Lower Manhattan," he said.

So, for De Niro, the attacks on 9/11 hit especially close to home: "I was just about to fly to California. I was at a meeting in Midtown, and instead of going to the airport, I came back down here, and saw the tower, the North Tower, the smoke coming out, and so on. And then saw the South Tower fall. I couldn't believe, I couldn't believe it. I looked to my left where I have a big television and so confirmed it on CNN."

"You had to look on the TV to confirm what you were seeing?" I asked.

"What I was seeing with my own eyes, yeah! It was weird."

And in the weeks that followed, he saw his old neighborhood become a ghost town. "The thing I remember most is, right up here it was with the dust that was wet down, as I say, every day, every few hours maybe, with the sanitation water trucks…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/