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.

[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.

[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.

[phcollard]

I was working for a newspaper at that time.

I remember my project manager urging me to go the news room. When I passed the door the TV sets were all showing the first tower burning. The room was packed. Almost every employee was there. But the room was totally silent.

[Steve in SLO]

In my call room at the hospital at 6:30ish watching news so I could stay awake as I was finishing a call shift. I remember it quite clearly, and I remember thinking "Oh ***** and Oh my God."
A few hours later my wife found out her favorite cousin was in the plane that hit the second tower. It was a bad day.

[GregL]

I was working on a project at the Frankfurt, Germany airport. First heard about it from my German colleagues who were listening to the radio in our car as we drove from one worksite to another. After the second tower was hit, we drove to the airport computer center. Like so many people worldwide, we watched the towers fall on CNN. It was devastating, all the more so because my wife and two year-old daughter were thousands of miles away. The only peace I felt was knowing that my family was safe in our home, with my mother and father-in-law there to take care of them if I couldn't get home for a long time. My wife was so supportive. I told her I didn't know when I would come home, but I would somehow make it home in one (living) piece.

My German colleagues were incredibly kind and considerate. They asked me and my American co-worker if we felt able to continue working (we were planning to be there for two weeks). By the next morning, we felt sufficiently recovered to go back to work. It was eerie seeing all the planes from the US airlines parked together on a remote ramp for the next several days, surrounded by German police and military units with armored vehicles.

When it was time to return to the US two weeks later, outbound security had been doubled. It was sobering to go through two security checks, surrounded by police in full riot gear, carrying military rifles. An older German gentleman next to me in line observed the security proceedings and remarked "The gangsters have already won." Once on the plane, I had an entire 30 seat business class section all to myself. I bet there weren't 50 people on the entire plane! I had my own personal flight attendant. After a while, I told her she really didn't have to check up on me regularly, I would just ask if I needed anything. When I finally arrived home, it was wrapped in a bear hug by my little girl. She knew that bad things had happened because of airplanes while daddy was away and was very glad to have me get off one. Then and there I decided that my business traveling days were going to be much reduced!

Greg

[dougefresh]

sophomore in college. my first class of the day was late, like 10 or 11 am. typical late rise to the day. i went outside and there were some guys doing roofing work on the place i was renting at the time. they asked me if i saw the news; i replied "no". they told me to go in and turn on the tv, didn't matter what channel.

spent the rest of the day glued to the tv as most professors did the same.

[SleepyCyclist]

If ever a good example of flashbulb memory.

Residency in LA.

Running around for morning rounds when noticed nearly everyone standing around TVs throughout the hospital. Odd. Stopped to see what was up. Just stood there ... shocked. Unbelievable.

Still seems unbelievable today. Horrific.

Prayers for everyone.

[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.

[parris]

I was working transport and we had just brought a group of inmates into local court. We finished our business and got ordered back to the facility along with all other transport teams. We watched the towers come down from intake.

[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

[Libraio]

End of a workday in a garage I worked at the time in Rotterdam (Netherlands), we heard an absurd news item. Work seized, we listened to the radio for more info and went home early. When I came home my parents who don't watch telly or listen to the radio were oblivious to the tragedy on the other side of the world. Television was on the rest of the day.
My wife and I went to NY a couple of years ago and visited the memorial site. Both of us were very impressed. Still unbelievable sixteen years later.

[ftf]

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.

[oldpotatoe]

Wife driving me to shop....heard something about airliner into building, thought it was a 'war of the worlds', type gig, on radio...walked down to coffee shop...pile of people around TV....just in time to see first tower come down...silence was eerie. Hard to work on bikes, seemed pretty low priority. Still makes me angry, 9/11.

[JasonF]

My office was on the 34th floor of 1 WFC (building on the right of the pic below) with an amazing huge window with a view straight to the towers.

I didn't go in that day because we were closing on our home purchase. Unfortunately, some guys I rode the train with every morning (the 6am out of Princeton Junction) never made it home.

[AngryScientist]

i cant help getting choked up thinking about the day.

i was in college in MA, but my girlfriend at the time, now my wife was at school in NYU.

the worst part, for me, was the phone lines getting all tied up and useless for hours after the crash. there was no way to get in touch with anyone in the city. it was truly terrible, watching the news coverage and just not knowing where anyone you love was or could be.

these days i commute through the WTC PATH station every day i'm in the office. rarely a day goes by that i dont think a bit on that terrible day as i walk through downtown.

[cadence90]

In bed in Los Angeles. The clock radio woke me, with the reports. Like oldpotatoe above at first I thought it was just some weird NPR "The War of the Worlds" thing, maybe H. G. Wells' or Orson Welles' birthday or something, until I turned on the TV. Getting to work was so bizarre, almost complete silence everywhere. Even at the office, nobody really said anything; everyone was in complete shock. Then they sent us all home, and nobody really wanted to go there either.

[joosttx]

Was in Holland researching bug spit on a Fulbright Fellowship. Returned to my lab from the library and all my colleagues were there to tell me the news. The Kicker was my Dad was in NYC. And at the moment heading to the WTC from midtown. I did not find out he was ok til about midnight - 6hrs or so hours after the event.

[thwart]

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.

[Bradford]

I have always felt guilty that I had such a good week around 9/11. I was on a bike tour with a friend up and down the northern coast of Maine starting September 10. I had a vague knowledge that something had happened, but being in a tent all week, I didn't see any TV.

Everyone else I know was miserable watching the news coverage all week, yet I was blissfully ignorant riding up and down hills in Maine.

When I eventually got home, I realized that a friend and his family, who were stuck in Massachusetts without a way home, and had a key to my house for unrelated reasons, squatted at my place when their hotel threw them out.

I caught up with the TV video when I got home, but didn't have to suffer like the rest of the country did.

[john903]

I was still in the Coast Guard stationed at Port Angeles,WA. That week was patrol boat training and there were 5 patrol boats there from other stations. We went into the training room at 8:00 and then around 9:00 we were told to go to your respective ships and wait. About a half hour later we all took off to various areas to patrol. Our 87' patrol boat fresh from the ship yards went to the Seattle water front. We patrolled the Seattle waterfront,piers, and ferry boats for a week. The first day I will never forget how completely eerily quite it was. No traffic noise, no aviation noise, no people, and no boat traffic. I remember looking at Seattle's tall buildings and thinking that could be happening here. I cried that day.

[Tony T]

Driving to work and just crossed the NY border when I heard on the news that an aircraft, possibly a Cessna, crashed into the Twin Towers
— of course it was much worse than that. (I will never forget)

[Tim Porter]

I was on the 10th floor of 2 World Financial Center (the building on the left, below). We thought the first plane was maybe just a misguided plane out of Teterboro. I called home and told my wife that she would probably hear about this but I was fine. I went back to the corner office on that floor to look at the WTC and then the second plane hit in a huge, huge ball of fire. I remember immediately thinking that I had just seen many, many people die. My second thought was to realize it was not just some horrific accident and we started clearing people out of there.

http://forums.thepaceline.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1697945873&stc=1&d=1505166399

I started walking north with a huge crowd of people and eventually, late in the afternoon, was able to get a train out of Grand Central. I'll never forget the north tower having a plane shaped hole in it before it collapsed. I was about a mile away by that point. After some months, we went back to work down there and I worked about 4 more years before deciding I had had enough and was luckily able to retire when I was 52. People yammer about "never forget" and i don't see how that is remotely possible.

[Tony T: I was not referring to your particular reference re: "never forget". More about what I see on bumper stickers around the NY area.]

[Hardlyrob]

I was driving to work when I heard about a small plane hitting the WTC - thought it was strange, and tried to figure out how that could happen. Was working at a small consulting firm north of Boston, and when I got to the office (in a cool old house), the admins said a plane hit the WTC. I said, yeah I heard that - then Sheila said "No, it was a 757". I spent the next while trying to figure out how that could possibly happen.

The managing director then sent me to Best Buy to buy a TV so we could figure out what was going on. While in Best Buy, the second plane hit, and I watched it on like 30 TV's. Still trying to figure out how this was happening, and then like a light switch realized it was intentional.

We had people all over the country that day - in LA, SF, Las Vegas. One of our consultants was supposed to be on United 175 that morning. She decided the day before that going to LA for that project didn't really make sense with everything else we had going on. She still has the boarding pass. There is a flag at each of the gates in Boston where the WTC flights left.

Our guys in Vegas couldn't get a flight, couldn't get a rental car, so one of them bought a car and drove back with a couple of our clients. The complete lack of planes in the sky made me very uneasy, as someone who flew all the time.

I didn't know anyone killed that day, but many friends in NYC and the financial world were hit very hard.

[d_douglas]

I had a similar TV shop experience. I was living in Switzerland and was riding home from work along a busy shopping street. I stopped at a tiny independent electronics shop and this young guy said to me 'c'est le fin du monde' as he shook his head with a very grim face. I distinctly remember that.

Also, I was at work and the internet was basically locked due to traffic. My colleague had this crazy satellite tv and he pulled it out. We watched the footage of the planes crashing into the buildings on a 6 inch screen probably 30 times as big groups of people gathered around the TV.

I can't imagine being there - it would have been a truly apocalyptic moment in time.

I was driving to work when I heard about a small plane hitting the WTC - thought it was strange, and tried to figure out how that could happen. Was working at a small consulting firm north of Boston, and when I got to the office (in a cool old house), the admins said a plane hit the WTC. I said, yeah I heard that - then Sheila said "No, it was a 757". I spent the next while trying to figure out how that could possibly happen.

The managing director then sent me to Best Buy to buy a TV so we could figure out what was going on. While in Best Buy, the second plane hit, and I watched it on like 30 TV's. Still trying to figure out how this was happening, and then like a light switch realized it was intentional.

We had people all over the country that day - in LA, SF, Las Vegas. One of our consultants was supposed to be on United 175 that morning. She decided the day before that going to LA for that project didn't really make sense with everything else we had going on. She still has the boarding pass. There is a flag at each of the gates in Boston where the WTC flights left.

Our guys in Vegas couldn't get a flight, couldn't get a rental car, so one of them bought a car and drove back with a couple of our clients. The complete lack of planes in the sky made me very uneasy, as someone who flew all the time.

I didn't know anyone killed that day, but many friends in NYC and the financial world were hit very hard.

[shovelhd]

I was on my second day of a new job in Springfield, MA. I had no desk phone, no computer, and an analog cellphone. When the first plane hit, I found out by overhearing coworkers talking about it. When the second plane hit, I was called into a senior VP's office who had a tv. From that moment forward, I was on a DR/BC team whose mission was to set up a temporary workplace for the 300+ Oppenheimer Funds workers on the 10th floor of the South Tower. Fortunately, they all got out. I managed to reach my wife on the cell before lunch. It was a tough time for all of us.

[dbnm]

I was just waking up in Albuquerque. I moved there from NY about 18 months earlier.

The alarm clock radio was usually set for music but that morning, instead of music, it was Tom Brokaw saying a plane had hit the towers.

I ran downstairs to turn on TV and witnessed the horror of the second plane hitting.

All of my family and friends were still in NY. I could not reach anyone for hours. By the end of the day I learned everyone was okay.

The images are burned on my brain.

I cried for days.

[cderalow]

I was in my 1st class of the day at WPI in Worcester MA. about halfway into my first quarter of freshman year of college.

I recall getting out of class and someone saying that a plane had hit the WTC and thinking, well that's happened a couple of times before in NYC with small planes hitting tall buildings there.

Went back to my dorm room and watched all of it unfold live on TV with an entire floors worth of my peers on the TV in the triple across the hall.

I later worked as a student assistant for one of the Materials guys they used to help determine why the towers fell (inclusive of his bit on TV), and the company my mother worked for helped transport debris from downtown across the river to Fresh Kills on Staten where they further sorted and searched it by barge.

I went to the memorial for the first time earlier this summer. My kids are too young to understand what a monumental change to our world it made. It was hard to explain anything to them without almost breaking down there in the memorial museum. some of the video and audio clippings were absolutely haunting and I still can't watch any of the video of the 2nd plane hitting or the tower falling without feeling violently ill, so the museum was a bit tough for me.

[93legendti]

Caribou Coffee. Saw a friend from elementary school, who asked if I saw what happened. I told her that I had and I told her who did it.

[Matthew]

I was in Ludington, Michigan. About to head out for a ride before work when my wife called. She said I had to turn on the news asap. I did and sat there thinking this can't possibly be happening. Flipped through the various news channels for a few hours just in shock. So incredibly sad to watch. I still watch some of the coverage that comes on every year. And the fact that a handful of you actually lived or worked so close to this makes it hit home again. I hope our country never sees anything like this again.

[onekgguy]

I was just going back into the sector at work (air traffic controller) when I passed a TV monitor where a few guys were commenting on a plane that had just hit one of the towers. I assumed it was a smaller type aircraft.

I did a short stint in the sector working low altitude traffic in the Grand Island (GRI), Omaha (OMA), Nebraska sector. Before being relieved from the position a "ground-stop" had been issued that forbid us from releasing any additional traffic into the system. I had no idea then that the ground-stop was related to the aircraft that hit the tower. The supervisor that gave the order wasn't clear as to why. I just did what I was told then went out on break and saw for myself the reason why. Twenty minutes later the order to get all the aircraft on the gound was issued and the airspace soon was empty with the exception of some military aircraft spinning circles over some of the more populated areas.

A few hours later Air Force 1 (the president's aircraft) came through my airspace and landed at Offutt Air Force Base. The interesting thing about it was that the aircraft's data tag wasn't the typical data tag we'd use to track an aircraft, rather, it was void of anything identifying it as Air Force 1. We used only a discreet 4 digit transponder code.

Kevin g

https://youtu.be/bo1ZtpKqlYw

[dsimon]

Hmmm very close to home....
I was an E5 in the Army at Fort Benning I was in the S3 Plans section watching it unfold on an old school TV

[Gummee]

The people across from me at the Hub Labels CX had a Transit Connect passenger version.

Tall enough to 'just about*' stand up in, but big enough to haul a ton of gear. They had a rack on the roof and an awning.

If you want bigger, there's always the NV series from Nissan.

Bigger still: Transit or Sprinter. I'm still leaning Sprinter 'cause I want to be able to stand up straight and change clothes inside out of the weather.

...but those are my needs/wants...

M

*had to tilt my head sideways and stoop some. I'm 5'8"

[texbike]

We were out on the Oregon coast for vacation. We awoke and turned on the TV to the news reports. The first image after turning on the TV was of the planes hitting the towers. My immediate reaction was - "That's a cool/interesting special effect. I wonder what movie that's from?", not realizing that it was an actual event occurring until a minute or so later when the we heard the actual news of what was going on. It was surreal. We ended up staying on the Coast and in Portland for a few days longer than originally planned and ended up being on the VERY 1st commercial flight out of PDX once the airport was reopened. We had a layover in Dallas before heading down to Austin. As we waited for our Austin flight at DFW, police and military rushed through the terminal and cleared/evacuated it yelling at everyone to get out and that there's a bomb about to go off. It was insane pandemonium! We ended up renting a car and drove to Austin along with 3 strangers that were waiting on the same flight.

Honestly, the terrorists (whomever you feel they are) won that day. Not only did they take innocent lives in that strike, but they irrevocably changed the U.S., cost our country 100s of billions of dollars, and led us down a path that has detrimentally impacted our standing in the world since. SOBs!

Texbike

[RFC]

Here in AZ PDT, I was waking up, drinking coffee and watched the second plane hit the towers. Just couldn't believe it! I was part of an international law practice then and had traveling friends and colleagues spread out around the world. I sat there for rest of the day txting them (txt pager) as they rented cars or bummed rides on corporate jets trying to get home. I was due to fly the Friday after to give a law school lecture and couldn't find a flying plane. Even from my point of safety (unlike those in the area) the world was never the same again.

[weisan]

Got to work earlier than usual here in Austin. A few weeks ago, the boss decided that we ought to be "tuned in" with what's going on around the world and came up with the brilliant idea to have the entire office plastered with wide screen TVs mounted everywhere and CNN News blaring at us non-stop 24/7. So when 9/11 happened, we all knew almost immediately because we were bombarded from all sides with the news reporting. We all stopped what we were doing and were just glued to the TV screens. It was silence and just plain shell-shocked for the most part. I remembered thinking to myself (and I say this without any malice or prejudice), "What a bunch of cowards! I was not surprised they would stoop this low but what surprised me was, it didn't happen more often or sooner." As someone with an outside perspective, I guess I was always aware and sensitive to the seething hatred harbored by certain people around the world towards the US, it was just a matter of time and opportunity that something like this would happen. No matter what, it doesn't change the fact that this is evil in one of the many expressions going on around us on a daily basis but because of its impact and geo location, it got us to sit up and pay attention.

[martinez]

This was two days after my first nephew was born.
Was still on summer break before starting the 7th grade. I remember waking up to watch MTV or whatever other tv shows I used to watch at the time and beeing bombarded with clips of a burning tower. Every channel I would change to would be covering the horrible events.
I remember being so young and thinking that this was somehow fake, that something like this could never happen here within US borders. A catastrophe of this magnitude not caused by a natural disaster? A terrorist attack? I remember just sitting on the floor watching the footage like a deer in headlights.
Won't ever forget that day

[carpediemracing]

Was working in Manhattan at the time. Heard a doorman saying something about "someone hit one of the Twin Towers with a plane" as I was walking from Grand Central to the office (2? blocks away). In the ground floor of our building (on 3rd Ave I think) I waited in line for my egg sandwich, said something about the plane to the woman waiting on me, went up stairs. I remember thinking "didn't a football player just fly his plane into a skyscraper or something?" and thought maybe it was a Cessna. Beautiful day so no way it was a visibility thing. I figured it was a private pilot that had a mechanical or a heart attack or something.

Opened the doors to the office (double doors) and it was ab-so-lute pandemonium. I thought maybe the company just lost all its money or something, like we were going under. I realized everyone was freaking out, crying, etc. A lot of us had friends in the southern Manhattan area, I just didn't realize what was going on yet. I asked someone what was happening, they yelled that a jet had flown into one of the towers. It took me a while to process that they were talking about a full size passenger plane, not a jet or a little whatever Gulfstream. Shortly after I got there the second plane hit and the whole office (100 people?) gasped in unison, swearing, crying, etc.

We couldn't see the Towers from where we were but I could see this brown smoke drifting across the otherwise perfectly blue sky. Reminded me of the movie Independence Day at the end when there's smoke drifting at a glacial pace across the sky after the aliens got shot down.

I couldn't get any .com sites to work so started randomly hitting .ca versions of the same sites. I found that yahoo.ca was working. They were doing some kind of semi-live feed (I saved a gif or or two, emailed them to myself) and I got an idea of what was happening. Radio was on super loud. Buildings burning. People jumping. It seemed totally surreal.

Then the buildings fell. I know a bunch of people at work knew folks out there. One's fiancee was a Cantor Fitzgerald (sp?) senior guy, but he was stuck in the PATH train under the river. He made it because of that, but the couple lost a lot of friends that day, lots of close ones.

A cycling friend for many years worked in one of the Towers. He was late for work, got annoyed that some police turned him away (he just wanted to get his laptop), went home, totally clueless, and I finally got through to him a few hours later. "You're alive!" "What are you talking about?" "Don't you work in the World Trade Center?" "Yeah, why?" "OMG!! Are you the most clueless person around?!"

The guy that got me my first IT job in NYC was on his way there for some training thing. He got out, bodies were hitting the ground, he turned away. He still won't talk about it, other than that one bit, his voice just trails away when he says that bit.

One of our guy's wife was in CT, TV on, and she called as soon as the train station opened up. They divided Grand Central into two - upper floor goes the Hudson line (up the river), lower floor to the Metro North (CT) line. We had to go downstairs to get on the trains. Everyone got on, jammed really tight, elderly and such got the seats. Everyone cooperated. We were squeezed in like you see in those Japanese train clips where they shove everyone on. Then we got moving.

We went pretty slowly, people trading stories at first but then it got quiet. People shuffled around so that those getting off next could get closer to the doors. Got to the first stop (I think it was Fordham), which looked normal. Then we got into the next few stops, closer to CT. The platforms were lined with EMTs and such. I think all the emergency personnel from NYC went directly to the Towers. The ones further away went to the platforms to "help the survivors". It was really sad because there were no survivors, just us. To see those EMTs frantically scanning the windows for wounded and then realizing that, wait, there were no wounded... it was heartbreaking.

Our company was indirectly involved after. We processed a lot of Verizon's supply chain orders at the time and their data center in Manhattan was destroyed, removing a lot of messaging capacity. They ordered some mobile data center things (trailers or something) through their supply chain, meaning through us, but our data center was also destroyed. The orders were delayed due to that. Since we closed that day on 9/11, and I think we were closed 9/12, it took a while to resolve that.

My mom was staying at my house, ill with cancer (she'd pass in 2003). I saw the aircraft carrier in the Long Island Sound from the train so I took her for a drive one night to see it. It was lit up like crazy, water around it was green from all the lights in the water. The beach near my house was the staging area for supply runs or something so it was closed, so we just drove to the next beach to look at the ship. Jets (F-18s I think) flew back and forth regularly. I don't remember what we talked about but I distinctly remember nothing about the actual attacks. I think for her it was a 2 hour drive in the car and being able to talk with her son.

[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

[54ny77]

I literally ducked into a bar when the plume came rushing up W. Broadway. It was the closest indoor space to where I was standing outside. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the place or where exactly.

7WTC was where my old office was located as well, and seeing the images of it crashing down....just horrible, horrible memories of that day.

Forever life changing, for generations to come.


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.

[johnmdesigner]

I lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at the time and worked in NJ so I was driving across the 59th Street bridge and the GWB about 10 minutes before it happened. I remember how beautiful downtown Manhattan looked while I was stopped in traffic.
It was 2 days before I could get back to my apartment. My windows were open and there was white dust on the windowsill.
We went down to lower Manhattan after I got back. It was amazing how close you could get to the pile. I remember a corner deli where all the fruit outside was covered in white dust.
Probably not the best idea as we spent the rest of the day coughing our lungs out.

[moose8]

I had just landed on a flight from Boston to New York Laguardia and was taking the subway back to my place in Brooklyn Heights. At the time the only news was a flight from Boston had crashed and none of the phone lines worked so my family and friends were freaked out. Then for days ashes and papers rained down on our apartment as it was just across the river. For a long time after walking around the city I would burst into tears. Everybody in the city knew at least somebody who was lost because it was just so many lives. The scope was just so huge.

[rounder]

I was working on a job at the D.C. tax department. Someone heard that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. It sounded like a lone plane for some stupid reason had crashed into the building. Then a few minutes later we heard that another plane had crashed into the world trade center. Some one said... terrorism, Osama Bin Ladin. As a contractor...no one said to leave, but we did. So, we left the facility. One of the coworkers offered to drive us to our cars. We were driving along listening to the radio misinformation...that there was a truck bomb at the Statehouse, trains were not running, etc. Nobody knew what was going on.

We drove to a restaurant and watched R.Guiliani walk through the streets, etc. A co-worker drove us to our cars.

In D.C., everything changed after that day. High security everywhere, includng at the Smithsonian.

Our lives all changed after that.

[lucieli]

Some amazing stories shared here. We did not know anyone that died but two of my friends lost siblings that day. For me, 9/11 was already an unforgettable day before the first plane struck the north tower. I was in upstate NY preparing to attend the funeral of my father who had died unexpectedly on 9/8. My wife was in the final week of a difficult pregnancy and could not make the trip from Boston. Just before we were to leave my moms house for the drive to the funeral home, my brother in law came in and told us to turn on the TV, a plane has hit one of the World Trade towers. We watched in horror long enough to see the second plane strike the south tower and then we had to leave for the funeral. Much of the rest of the day is a blur for me. Immediately after the funeral, I drove straight home to Boston to be with my wife. Six days later on 9/17, our son was born.

[velomateo]

Such an awful day, seeing all the photos brought back so much sadness. I was working for United then and I had received aircraft 6012 just a few days before in LA. I don't know if any of the crew from that day were onboard when it struck the WTC on 9/11.
My wife took our boys to NYC for the 4th of July that year, and were fortunate to get seated in first class for the leg to NY. My wife told me how nice the crew had been to the boys, then 10 and 6 years old. The Captain let them in to the cockpit and allowed them to seat in the seats, after they landed at JFK. We have a photo of my oldest, wearing one of the pilots hats while seated behind the yoke. The placard on the instrument panel reads 6012.

[paredown]

We had just moved to London--my wife was already at work, and I was in the apartment trying to 'get sorted' as the Brits would say, when I got a call on my cell from another of the American husbands that had followed their wives over. No TV yet, but got online to watch a bad feed posted somewhere online of the first collision, and then could not get live streaming as the web pretty well locked up. Followed up with BBC Radio, and then heard the news about the second strike. Horrifying.

A couple of days later, the same friend convinced me to go to the 'impromptu' memorial at Grosvenor Square across from the US Embassy--because of the number of Brits who were killed and the strong ties between the City and Wall Street. It covered most of the Square--tight security, but a heart-breaking display of 'in memoriam'--pictures, candles, flowers. And as has been mentioned, eerily quiet despite the crowds. The second time I remember crying in public (the first was the Vietnam memorial).

For months afterwards, the normally reserved Brits (when they heard our accents) would commiserate and ask if we had lost anyone...

Fast forward a few years--and we moved to Brooklyn. I was a New York neophyte when the towers fell, and I never did see real TV coverage, and did not know the geography well enough to know that the Brooklyn fire companies were the first on the scene. So I walk out of our new apartment on State Street (out to look for OJ) on the first morning, and I see a red Flyer Wagon on the sidewalk in front of the tiny Fire Company that shared our block--and when I get closer, I realize that I'm looking at their memorial for their fallen comrades from 9-11----and it all comes rushing back....

(You can see the memorial on the left; the wagon used to be full of flowers...Pictures in window above the bench of the five firefighters lost from just this company.)

[donevwil]

I was in eastern Oregon on a bike tour. On the 10th I met the woman who would become my wife, on the 11th camp awoke to radio being played over the PA. It was hard to fathom what was happening without visual input, we didn't see pictures of the devastation until the next day's newspaper and the first video I saw was at the hotel room on the way home the following Sunday.

[kingpin75s]

Working in a Data Center that was also a DOD high performance computing facility at the time. We were all given the option to head home JIC. Headed home to watch the sad and surreal event unfold.