Twenty years after the terror attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center towers, Anthony Whitaker's iconic photograph of the ruins endures.

"It's kind of humbling to know that you captured something that's going to be a part of history," Whitaker said.

"It's an image that symbolically communicates courage, strength, resilience, fortitude," he added.

That's why he says he named it Steel Standing, a testament to the emotion he felt at the site after the attacks.

Arriving on September 11, 2001 as a member of a Con Edison crew to repair a damaged substation, Whitaker said he was struck by the sight of what was left of the south tower.

"At that moment that I saw it, I experienced a catharsis. It was like an emotional healing, and that's what kind of drove me and put me in the mode to capture the picture the way that I did."

A week later, he found an opportunity to get the shot.

"It was so much anticipation" Whitaker said. "It was like a shock that went through me because I knew I had captured it exactly how I pictured it in my mind."

Steel Standing has been celebrated across the country, and has been included in the Library of Congress and displayed in the United Nations, and the National September 11th Memorial & Museum.

Though Whitaker has received awards for work, it's a bittersweet distinction. But, he's glad that the vision of hope captured by his camera 20 years ago remains timeless.

"Even today with the pandemic, the message has resonance," he asid.