25 Years Later… The Sister of the Falling Man Reveals His Identity and the Story of His Final Journey

That tragic day has returned to the forefront after the identity of the man seen in a famous photograph falling from one of the towers of the World Trade Center was revealed.

Photographer Richard Drew captured the image, which went on to become one of the defining visual symbols of the tragedy, while the name of the man depicted in it remained unknown for many years. At the time, estimates suggested that no more than 200 people had fallen from the two towers during the attacks.

The New York Times published the photograph the day after the attacks, but it sparked widespread outrage among readers who considered it an intrusion into the victim’s privacy and dignity during his final moments. With social media not yet available at the time, there was no widely accessible means of identifying him, leading to a lengthy journalistic effort to uncover his identity.

From Norberto Hernandez to Jonathan Briley

The investigation initially focused on Norberto Hernandez, a pastry chef at the Windows on the World restaurant, after some people believed that the facial features in the photograph might match his.

However, a later investigation by journalist Tom Junod for Esquire magazine led researchers in a different direction after he managed to obtain a sequence of twelve consecutive photographs taken by Richard Drew of the same man.

The final images showed that the man was wearing an orange shirt beneath his outer clothing, strengthening the theory that he was Jonathan Briley, a sound engineer who stood approximately 1.95 metres tall, worked at the restaurant, and was known for wearing orange shirts.

Although no conclusive physical evidence established exactly what he was wearing that morning, the available evidence and surrounding circumstances strongly supported the conclusion that Briley was the man shown in the photograph.

A Final Journey That Became an Enduring Memory

A few days before the attacks, Briley travelled to Florida with his sister Gwendolyn and her husband after deciding to join them at the last minute.

His sister remembers the trip as one of her most cherished memories of him. They would wake up early and watch the sunrise over the ocean. Briley returned to New York on September 8, only to lose his life three days later.

When speculation began to focus on the identity of the “Falling Man,” Gwendolyn said that her family experienced profound grief. However, she did not view the photograph merely as a record of her brother’s death, but rather as a symbol representing thousands of victims.

Today, 25 years later, Gwendolyn still remembers her brother on every anniversary of the attacks, while the photograph, whose subject’s identity remained a mystery for years, has become both an artistic and historical work.

It was acquired by singer Elton John for his private collection, illustrating how a single image transcended the boundaries of one tragedy to become a deeply human symbol of the final moment between life and death.