9/11 2001

[Drmojo]

where were y'all when you heard the news?
Me: Cleveland Clinic in rounds that morning. Patients told us to watch TV in the day room. Airport closed as reports of plane # 3 was heading west.
Scary time
Went home and hugged my girls.

[jumphigher]

My wife and I were in Cancun for my Birthday. We ended up stuck there 3 additional days because of course the planes were grounded.

This event had a profound impact on me - still does. And although I dont think about it all the time, I'm still extremely angry at the scumbags who killed all those innocent people, and our govt asleep at the wheel which let it happen.

[Nooch]

Senior in high school about 45 miles away from the city.

In between classes someone mentioned a plane hit the tower -- I shrugged it off figuring it was a Cessna or something. Ducked into the A/V room and saw the extent.

None of my classes put the tv on that day, and i don't remember talking much about what was happening.

[ftf]

Originally Posted by Nooch

Senior in high school about 45 miles away from the city.

In between classes someone mentioned a plane hit the tower -- I shrugged it off figuring it was a Cessna or something. Ducked into the A/V room and saw the extent.

None of my classes put the tv on that day, and i don't remember talking much about what was happening.

Huh this is very interesting.

I too was in highschool, also a senior at the time, and we watched it on TV, eventually we went home. However I will never forget when our teacher asked us how many of us were going to sign up for the military in response, and other rhetoric along those lines, I'm sure you can guess.

[brownhound]

Midtown Manhattan.

I couldn't go home to Brooklyn because the subways were shut down. Later I found out they didn't know if the subways would flood drowning everyone on account of the WTC path station being demolished. But they didn't want to instill mass panic, so let them go.

I sat in my office, watching people stream uptown all day covered in cement dust, and a few with blood. At about 4 pm., I walked to try and give blood without luck. At about 5 or 6, I finally found a running train. When the train emerged from a tunnel and rose on a trestle, I turned to look at Lower Manhattan. I guy said to me "don't look, they just ****ing took it all, don't look." Many people around me wouldn't look. Some cried.

That night people wandered the sidewalks of the neighborhood (Park Slope), not wanting to be alone, putting out flowers, candles and signs. It's the only time I've seen people pound on closed church doors, trying to get in. There was an overpowering odor of burnt plastic everywhere, and the cloud of cement dust started to settle on Brooklyn. Didn't sleep that night, but listed to the radio news.

The truly frightening thing about 9/11 is that we didn't how it was going to turn out. We didn't know if it was the first of 100 planes being flown into buildings. We didn't know if it was Pearl Harbor.

[54ny77]

was in midtown, and i was supposed to be in tower 2 that morning, but was running late. still don't have the muster to go see the 9/11 memorial in detail. have only walked past it, quickly, on the sidewalk. will get there when i'm good & ready. that's trivial in light of what others suffered through or continue to suffer through today. so much loss and pain. terrible. may the many souls rest in peace.

[William]

I was in my room at the Hilton in Minneapolis getting ready to go to a training seminar. Turned on the news while I was getting ready and heard about the first plane and the news casters talking about an "accident/crash" into the tower. Then watched live as so many others did when the second plane came into view and struck the second tower...as my heart sunk I also realized then exactly what was happening. I didn't go to the seminar and I just stayed in my room, called my wife, and watched everything unfold. Then I spent the next three days trying to get home to my family in Portland. After many on and then cancelled flights I finally was able to get a rental car and drove across half the country to get home.





William

[thwart]

Originally Posted by brownhound

When the train emerged from a tunnel and rose on a trestle, I turned to look at Lower Manhattan. I guy said to me "don't look, they just ****ing took it all, don't look." Many people around me wouldn't look. Some cried.

That night people wandered the sidewalks of the neighborhood (Park Slope), not wanting to be alone, putting out flowers, candles and signs. It's the only time I've seen people pound on closed church doors, trying to get in.

This. The most horrific thing I hope to ever see.

For me, a typical clinic day until the news got out and then folks just clustered around the TV's in the waiting rooms. Administration wanted to turn them off but no one could actually bring themselves to do so.

[rrudoff]

On a redeye American Airlines flight from Honolulu to San Jose. Woke up thinking why are we circling over the ocean and not landing. Eventually because we were on a 757 and did not have range to be diverted to Canada (SFO flights were to my knowledge), landed at SJC around 730 AM. Pilot did not know what was going on, or at least did not tell us, and nothing was clear in airport other than flights cancelled. Got a taxi, went home and turned on TV to obvious shock. Had to fly back to HNL as soon as airports were again open, perhaps on 15th or so. Never been on such an empty flight as on the way back. My brother was on honeymoon in Nova Scotia and was stuck there extra 4-5 days I think.

[type2sam]

At work in Cambridge, MA. Noticed it first on the web and eventually someone found a TV and managed to get a pretty lousy signal. There was a dawning realization that two of our colleagues were on Flight 11, with three more having skipped that flight to try to save our dot com a bit of money.

I distinctly recall seeing both towers on fire, then the broadcast cutting away from that view, then returning and trying to comprehend how I was seeing only one tower.

[bicimechanic]

It was my normal day off from the bike shop. I was at my girlfriends (now wife) house. We clicked on the tube for news and background noise while I got ready for a ride. I'll never forget they were interviewing Harry Belafonte and they cut to footage of the towers. Spent the rest of the day glued to the TV. It was otherwise such a nice day out and not a cloud in the sky. 5 years later I became a firefighter.

[fiamme red]

I was too close at the time to see the events in perspective. I was shopping at the farmer's market on Liberty St, 1/2 block away from the Twin Towers, about to make my purchase and go down to the PATH train to get to work in Jersey City. I had no idea what happened, and only left after the second plane hit.

[fiamme red]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

I was too close at the time to see the events in perspective. I was shopping at the farmer's market on Liberty St, 1/2 block away from the Twin Towers, about to make my purchase and go down to the PATH train to get to work in Jersey City. I had no idea what happened, and only left after the second plane hit.

Another few things came to mind after reading this thread. It's not a day that I care to revisit much in my memory. It was at least a year and a half after 9/11 before I felt comfortable being in that area again. I've never visited the 9/11 Memorial Museum and have no intention of ever doing so.

I would normally have already have taken the PATH and been at my office in Jersey City at the time the first plane hit. Or I might have been stuck in a train under the river. But that Tuesday was primary election day in NYC, and I decided to vote before work, rather than in the evening, as I almost always have done.

After the first plane hit, it felt like millions of documents falling from the sky around me, and there was some heavier debris like glass and concrete not far away.

I locked my commuter bike up on Liberty Street when I went to the farmer's market. In the general confusion, I left it there after the second plane hit, and of course never saw it again.

I was watching TV later in the day at a friend's apartment, and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw video of 7 WTC collapsing in seconds. I worked in that building until June 2001.

[marciero]

It's been good reading this thread. Thanks all for sharing. I cant say that I've had a reflective remembrance of 9/11 since the early aftermath of the event.

I was on the east side of the Hudson River about an hour north of the city, riding north on my bike. I had just moved to Cornwall-on-Hudson for a job at USMA West Point, on the other side of the river. I passed a very slow-moving cyclist on a beater bike headed south who mumbled something about a plane crash, and may have mentioned WTC. I dismissed it as just weird. To complete my circuit I needed to cross the Newburgh-Beacon bridge to get back on the west side of the river, but the bridge was closed. An officer told me it was because of the plane crash but still in my mind I was not making the connection, and was unaware it was a terrorist attack, nor did I know any details at all. So I spent the immediate aftermath in solitude wondering what was going on, on the bike getting back home the way I came, via the Bear Mountain bridge to the south, which was not closed. As I rode by West Point I saw that it was in complete lock down. Previously an open campus, it was months before cars were even allowed back on "post". Even then the entrance points were, and as far as I know still are, all cement barricades and car inspections.

[LegendRider]

Aside from the terrible images on television, my most distinct memory was a sign on 285 (the highway that circles Atlanta ) that said: NATIONAL EMERGENCY -- HARTSFIELD JACKSON AIRPORT CLOSED