Remembering Arthur E. Imperatore, Who Ferried Evacuees To Safety Following the 9/11 Attacks

The 9/11 Memorial & Museum wishes to acknowledge the passing of Arthur E. Imperatore on November 18, 2020, at age 95.

The private transportation company and ferry fleet Imperatore founded in 1986, New York Waterway, became a commuting mainstay between New Jersey and Manhattan despite predictions that it would fall flat with those in the habit of driving over bridges and through tunnels from work to home.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Imperatore’s ferries were repurposed for immediate service as part of a domestic boatlift that delivered evacuees from stricken Manhattan island to safety in New Jersey, Staten Island, and elsewhere. More than 400,000 civilians are estimated to have benefitted from that extraordinary, improvised waterborne rescue operation. After navigating around the financial district, through the dust cloud of the collapsed towers and a flotilla of other responding vessels, New York Waterway boats returned to aid long lines of stranded and waiting civilians at Pier 11 near Wall Street and the ferry terminal at West 39th Street. Their crews improvised routes across the Hudson River to North Jersey’s waterfront and stayed working until the need had been met.

In the aftermath of the terror attacks, with car and truck travel suspended into lower Manhattan, Imperatore’s fleet continued to provide vital ferry service across New York harbor, transporting supplies, food, and emergency workers harborside to Ground Zero, sometimes shuttling bereaved family members from Pier 94 downtown to pay their respects where their loved ones had perished. This was not the first time that New York Waterway had adapted to address an unfolding emergency. In the immediate wake of the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993, its boats provided continual rush-hour service to thousands of office workers fleeing the disaster scene.

Like most forms of public transit in the New York metro region beginning this past March, New York Waterway’s ridership plummeted as the city went into quarantine from the novel coronavirus. But as recently as this September, Imperatore—a habitual optimist—predicted that commuters would soon re-embrace the open-air nature and brief but intense adventure of ferry travel on the waterways edging New York City and New Jersey’s Hudson River communities. In a recent interview with a reporter for NorthJersey.com, he prophesied, “We’re gonna come back bigger and strong than ever; we’re gonna win.”

By 9/11 Memorial Staff