The 9/11 Payphone (as I called it) actually had nothing to do with 9/11. Located in Long Island City, this phone happened to be next to a 9/11 mural which was among the first of its vintage to rise up from the hands New York City graf artists after the events of that day. I think the artist's name (seen at the top left) is either PHYNE1 or PHYME1.
I noticed the other day that the payphone is gone, but the empty enclosure remains. Vacant payphone cabinets such as this have been common in all cities for some time. The removal of the phone is a precursor to the eventual removal of the payphone stand and enclosure. I believe this job is the responsibility of the city. A square outline on the sidewalk will leave only an echo of this once-vital resource.
If I were to choose a real 9/11 payphone -- a phone in proximity of the Towers which survived that day -- then I might choose this one, on Vesey Street, seen here with the pits of Ground Zero just a few feet behind it.
Another choice -- maybe a better one -- would be the payphones in this picture (taken with my Canon ELPH APS Camera). These phones were in the lower level of the Twin Towers.
When I first started collecting payphone numbers and locations in New York I made an effort to get numbers in locations that I thought would be useful for reporters or radio groupies trying to reach individuals at the scene of significant events. I never told anyone I was doing this at the time. It seemed like a long way from my lot in life as a corporate drone to someone making potentially useful niche resources.
I gathered numbers for payphones at places like Shea Stadium, Yankee Stadium, and the World Trade Center. I imagined some enterprising reporter might use the list to, for instance, call a payphone at Yankee Stadium after a Yankees World Series victory to get a perspective from a real baseball fan expanding their throes of ecstasy by answering a ringing payphone.
After the 1993 bombings of the Trade Center I made a project of gathering the payphone numbers for the public phones in the concourse level. In the event of another attack I imagined a reporter or other interested party reaching into the Towers for genuine descriptions of what was happening inside.
In retrospect this would likely have endangered the life of whoever answered, keeping them inside the building summoning up quotable commentary to a reporter while they should have been exiting the building.