As the twin towers fell, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers remembered something that's so easily forgotten: Manhattan is an island. Bridges, tunnels, and all public transportation ceased and people were trapped in New York City.
Coming to their rescue were the boat captains and mariners of New York's harbor ferries. Despite the fact that the ferries were essentially "big orange target(s) in the middle of that harbor," hundreds of tug boats, fishing boats, ferries, Coast Guard cutters, and other boats showed up to help evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from Manhattan's seawall in just nine hours.