How 9/11 looked on a newly created Internet on that day

We were in the early days of the Internet when it happened, but it was a story made for digital news. The combination of huge breaking news that demanded minute-to-minute updating and the stunning use of video…the millions of views of the same moment that the public could not keep its eyes off of. We ran the loop of the video showing the planes hitting the buildings over and over again, all day.

It was the first time we ran millions of video views on one day. And at CBS MarketWatch.com, we were uniquely positioned to cover this story. After all, it had happened downtown, blocks from Wall Street, and we were partnered with CBS News, which had access to the dramatic video and great coverage of Washington and New York City. We had staff working at the New York Stock Exchange that day, like all days.

We were able to keep our site up all day, while all the major news sites were crashing under the loads of sudden demands. We were made to withstand large bursts of traffic because we had them often when the stock market moved in big ways, which it was doing often in those days.

We had to scrap all the graphic frills of a normal front page and this is what we looked like…updating headlines and videos all day, but keeping a simple page to allow the site to handle the load.

It is a day none of us will ever forget. And one that impacted so many of our staff for the rest of their lives. So many of us in the financial and financial news worlds lost friends there.

May they rest in peace.