Crews who were deployed to clean up the aftermath of the September 11 attacks stumbled upon a shipwreck that dated back hundreds of years.
In 2010, as the site of the World Trade Center attack was being excavated, researchers discovered something strange underneath the rubble.
Archaeologists found a an ancient ship which sat at 22 feet (6.7 meters) below street level, as per Futurism.
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The old wooden ship left researchers dumbfounded, with teams rushing to figure out where the incredibly it came from and how the hell it wound up in the middle of the Big Apple.
Scientists have since revealed the secrets lurking below the surface with the mysterious vessel.
They were able to analyse the tree rings on the wooden skeleton of the shipwreck to analyse its age.
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They discovered the wood used to build the vessel came from Philadelphia circa 1773.
So how on Earth did a large, wooden ship come to be in the middle of the city?
Well, when Manhattan was first settled, the site where the World Trade Center was built was actually in the Hudson river.
Researchers aren't sure if the ship sank accidentally or due to some mishap.
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As New York grew and expanded, Manhattan’s western shoreline moved westward until the ship was eventually buried by trash and other landfill.
Archaeologist Molly McDonald told CNN in 2014: "It’s such an intense site already based on its recent history, so to be in the midst of this urban, modern, very fraught location, and then to be sitting on what was a river bottom, with clams and fish, and the smell of low tide, was really an amazing juxtaposition."
By 1818, the ship would have vanished from view completely until the September 11 attacks in 2001.
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And the ship was well and truly long-forgotten when New Yorkers, Americans, and people around the world watched on in horror as a Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel smashed into the northern tower of the World Trade Center at 8:45am on that fateful day.
The impact left a gaping hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, killing hundreds of people instantly.
On a typical weekday, an estimated 50,000 people worked in the twin buildings.
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A further 140,000 people passed through the Twin Towers as visitors on a daily basis.
The World Trade Center was so large it actually had its own postcode, 10048, which is simply mind boggling.
In total, 2,977 innocent people were killed in the attacks.
Thousands more were injured.
And countless people have walked over the site over the years, completely unaware of the nautical treasure hiding underneath.
Topics: US News
Rachel Lang