story9696.xml
Title
story9696.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-09-11
911DA Story: Story
The sky was clear and blue on the morning of September 11, 2001 in New York City.
Walking down Park Avenue in midtown on my way to work, I noticed pedestrians looking in a bank window. I stepped up and looked in at the TV displayed through the window and saw the World Trade Center Towers. One had smoke pouring out of it, but it wasn't clear what had happened.
When I finally arrived at work (at a midtown investment bank on Park Avenue), I found out what happened.
I need to first note that the office I was working in had cable-TV situated in the collective work area, so my entire team was watching the events when I arrived.
I was told that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center Tower 1. It wasn't known yet whether it was an accident, or what. As we watched, Tower 2 exploded. My first thought was a bomb, while others thought it a side effect of the Tower 1 crash. The TV station then replayed the video, revealing a second plane crashing into Tower 2. It suddenly became horribly clear this as all deliberate.
We watched in amazement as one, then the other tower collapsed.
Word then came in about the Pentagon, and the plane in Pennsylvania. A coworker couldn?t understand why a plane would crash in the middle of nowhere, and I guessed that the passengers somehow found out what was going on and brought it down themselves (later on I was surprised to find out how accurate that was).
Our boss announced without a second thought that we should all plan on leaving the office and going home soon. As we were preparing to depart, the news announced that all traffic going in and out of the city was stopped, bridges were closed, and public transportation and trains were halted. I called my girlfriend, and arranged to meet with her on 3rd Ave and 41st street, to then walk home to Park Slope, Brooklyn together.
As I waited for her, it became clear that all pager and cell-phone service was non-functional. People were lined up using payphones all over the streets. The sidewalks were incredibly crowded with people leaving work and trying to get home. I could see the immense column of black smoke against the clear blue sky, and could start to smell it as well.
My girlfriend and I found each other and proceeded down 3rd Ave, then switched over to 2nd Ave, which was less crowded. As we walked, she kept 1010WINS (NYC news radio station) playing on her Walkman headphones, giving me periodic updates. I think it helped give us both a little sense of security. One thing we found out was that all the radio and broadcast TV stations using the tower at the WTC were now off the air. Only those using the tower at the Empire State Building were still on.
The traffic dwindled down to none on the avenue, except for the occasional EMS, police, or military vehicle. As we walked by Bellevue, there was a group of medical staff waiting out front, obviously expecting to receive a large number of injured. As we waled, any sound of an airplane overhead made us nervous.
We reached Canal St, and found a huge sea of people migrating from uptown and downtown, merging to cross the Manhattan Bridge, or find a different path home. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge, and could see downtown Manhattan enveloped in smoke, with absolutely no traffic or people visible on the streets, and all buildings dark from the power being cut. The column of black smoke from the WTC site was stretching an incredible distance out over the water, with the acrid smell just getting stronger. Most of those crossing the bridge did so silently. At this point, military aircraft were starting to patrol the skies, which I found reassuring.
When we reached the Brooklyn side of the bridge, we were greeted with a contingent of medical personnel and others with water bottles to attend to those in need. To me, this was a great example of how New Yorkers pull together when push comes to shove.
After the 3 hour exodus we arrived home.
Walking down Park Avenue in midtown on my way to work, I noticed pedestrians looking in a bank window. I stepped up and looked in at the TV displayed through the window and saw the World Trade Center Towers. One had smoke pouring out of it, but it wasn't clear what had happened.
When I finally arrived at work (at a midtown investment bank on Park Avenue), I found out what happened.
I need to first note that the office I was working in had cable-TV situated in the collective work area, so my entire team was watching the events when I arrived.
I was told that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center Tower 1. It wasn't known yet whether it was an accident, or what. As we watched, Tower 2 exploded. My first thought was a bomb, while others thought it a side effect of the Tower 1 crash. The TV station then replayed the video, revealing a second plane crashing into Tower 2. It suddenly became horribly clear this as all deliberate.
We watched in amazement as one, then the other tower collapsed.
Word then came in about the Pentagon, and the plane in Pennsylvania. A coworker couldn?t understand why a plane would crash in the middle of nowhere, and I guessed that the passengers somehow found out what was going on and brought it down themselves (later on I was surprised to find out how accurate that was).
Our boss announced without a second thought that we should all plan on leaving the office and going home soon. As we were preparing to depart, the news announced that all traffic going in and out of the city was stopped, bridges were closed, and public transportation and trains were halted. I called my girlfriend, and arranged to meet with her on 3rd Ave and 41st street, to then walk home to Park Slope, Brooklyn together.
As I waited for her, it became clear that all pager and cell-phone service was non-functional. People were lined up using payphones all over the streets. The sidewalks were incredibly crowded with people leaving work and trying to get home. I could see the immense column of black smoke against the clear blue sky, and could start to smell it as well.
My girlfriend and I found each other and proceeded down 3rd Ave, then switched over to 2nd Ave, which was less crowded. As we walked, she kept 1010WINS (NYC news radio station) playing on her Walkman headphones, giving me periodic updates. I think it helped give us both a little sense of security. One thing we found out was that all the radio and broadcast TV stations using the tower at the WTC were now off the air. Only those using the tower at the Empire State Building were still on.
The traffic dwindled down to none on the avenue, except for the occasional EMS, police, or military vehicle. As we walked by Bellevue, there was a group of medical staff waiting out front, obviously expecting to receive a large number of injured. As we waled, any sound of an airplane overhead made us nervous.
We reached Canal St, and found a huge sea of people migrating from uptown and downtown, merging to cross the Manhattan Bridge, or find a different path home. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge, and could see downtown Manhattan enveloped in smoke, with absolutely no traffic or people visible on the streets, and all buildings dark from the power being cut. The column of black smoke from the WTC site was stretching an incredible distance out over the water, with the acrid smell just getting stronger. Most of those crossing the bridge did so silently. At this point, military aircraft were starting to patrol the skies, which I found reassuring.
When we reached the Brooklyn side of the bridge, we were greeted with a contingent of medical personnel and others with water bottles to attend to those in need. To me, this was a great example of how New Yorkers pull together when push comes to shove.
After the 3 hour exodus we arrived home.
Collection
Citation
“story9696.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 27, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/11119.