‘I relive 9/11 every single day,’ hero custodian William Rodriguez, the last man out of WTC’s North Tower, says

 

“I Relive 9/11 Every Single Day”: William Rodriguez and the Memory of the North Tower

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, William Rodriguez says the memories have never truly left him.

“I relive 9/11 every single day,” Rodriguez has said, describing the emotional weight of losing friends, witnessing unimaginable destruction and surviving an event that permanently changed his life. {"fallbackMarkdown":"(New York Post

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Rodriguez was working as a custodian at the World Trade Center’s North Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001. He had worked there for nearly two decades and rarely missed a day of work. On that particular morning, however, he almost stayed home because of the beautiful weather. His supervisor persuaded him to come in.

That decision would ultimately place him at the center of one of the darkest days in American history.

A key that became a lifeline

Rodriguez arrived at the World Trade Center at approximately 8:30 a.m. He eventually made his way to the basement of the North Tower.

At 8:46 a.m., American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building between the 93rd and 99th floors.

Rodriguez initially did not understand what had happened. He heard an enormous explosion, felt the building shake and saw people suffering horrific injuries. When he made his way outside, he finally saw the scale of the destruction: fire and smoke pouring from the tower.

His first thoughts were of friends he knew at Windows on the World, the restaurant located near the top of the North Tower. Many of them would not survive.

But Rodriguez possessed something that became critically important during the evacuation: a master key capable of opening doors throughout the World Trade Center complex.

He used it to open emergency doors and assist firefighters and police officers as they moved through the building. His actions helped people reach escape routes while the tower was still standing. {"fallbackMarkdown":"(New York Post

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The last survivor out

Rodriguez eventually made it outside as the North Tower collapsed.

He sought cover beneath a fire truck as debris came crashing down around him. According to accounts of his experience, he was not rescued until roughly four and a half hours later.

He became widely known as the “last man out” of the North Tower.

His story was later chronicled in the documentary The Last Man Out, which helped bring his experience to audiences around the world. {"fallbackMarkdown":"(Amed Post

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Yet Rodriguez has repeatedly resisted describing himself simply as a hero.

For him, survival came with an enormous emotional cost.

“I lost 200 friends”

The passage of time has not erased the people Rodriguez lost.

He has said that he thinks about September 11 every day, particularly because so many people he knew were killed.

The orange safety vest he wore that morning and the master key associated with his rescue efforts have remained symbols of the day and of the lives he could help save.

But the people he could not save remain at the center of his memories.

That distinction has shaped Rodriguez's work in the years since the attacks. Rather than allowing September 11 to become merely a historical event, he has traveled and spoken publicly about what happened, particularly to younger people who were not alive—or were too young to remember—the attacks.

His message is simple: the story is ultimately about people, not buildings.

Turning survival into a mission

In the years following 9/11, Rodriguez devoted much of his life to supporting survivors and families affected by the attacks. His advocacy and fundraising efforts have been credited with helping raise an estimated $122 million for victims, survivors and their families. {"fallbackMarkdown":"(New York Post

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He has also spoken about how profoundly the experience changed him personally.

Before September 11, Rodriguez described himself as a 40-year-old single man focused largely on enjoying life. After surviving the attacks, his priorities changed. He became more focused on spirituality, compassion and helping others.

That transformation has become an important part of his story.

A memory that refuses to disappear

The 25th anniversary of September 11 is a reminder that the attacks belong to history—but for survivors such as Rodriguez, history is not something safely confined to the past.

It can return through a sound, a photograph, a familiar building, a memory of a friend or the anniversary itself.

Rodriguez continues to speak because he fears that future generations may know September 11 only as something they read about in textbooks.

For him, remembering means keeping the victims at the center of the story.

He survived the collapse of the North Tower. But surviving, he has made clear, was only the beginning of his responsibility.

His life since that morning has become an ongoing effort to remember those who did not make it out—and to ensure that their stories are not forgotten.