The "Climbing Man"

On September 11th, 2001, desperation was pervasive across the upper floors of the Twin Towers. People were seen falling from the North Tower as early as 8:48 - 8:49 AM, which was only two to three minutes after AA11 impacted the tower, leaving a gaping hole in its destructive wake between floors 93 and 99.

By 9:00 AM, people were already piled high in smashed windows just a few floors above the impact zone, and these conditions would only grow worse through the next 1 hour and 28 minutes.

On all four sides of the building, only a few people attempted to scale down the side of the North Tower. Almost all of these attempts ended tragically, as these brave souls would either lose their grip immediately or would only shimmy down a few inches before falling.

A couple of people were seen trying the same method of escape in the South Tower. In a horrifying video taken in the plaza, the camera closes in on someone's arm waving a jacket around from behind a broken window. Moments later, a man emerges from the window. He also would attempt to climb down the building, but he would not survive.

But not this man.

This brave man climbed down not just a few inches, but almost twenty floors.

That's equal to about 150 feet of vertical distance.

The man began his climb at around 9:35 AM, starting from the 94th floor and gradually wriggling his way down.

He was last seen at about the 79th floor when the South Tower collapsed. After that, he was nowhere to be seen.