500 hours of dramatic, never-before-seen footage of 9/11 and aftermath to be unveiled at New York Public Library

Hundreds of hours of harrowing, never-before-seen first-person footage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath will soon be unveiled at the New York Public Library in a new historic archive — and The Post got an exclusive first peek Thursday.

A total of 500 hours of new footage includes striking images from Ground Zero recovery efforts, destroyed subway tunnels and pet rescue missions, library officials said Thursday, on the 24th anniversary of the attacks.

Never-before-seen footage released exclusively to The Post, titled “Nighttime Recovery,” shows smoke rising in gloomy gray plumes at Ground Zero as first responders dig through piles of rubble with an orange excavator. 5

One firefighter enveloped in smoke sprays debris with a firehose as a stunned observer decl