September 11 Digital Archive

story4406.xml

Title

story4406.xml

Source

born-digital

Media Type

story

Created by Author

yes

Described by Author

no

Date Entered

2002-09-11

911DA Story: Story

That morning a co-worker and I were listening to Howard Stern's radio show when he mentioned that a plane had crashed into the Worldtrade Centre. We didn't know what to think, was it a joke or not? More information came thru, the building was now on fire. My co-worker tried to contact his girlfriend who works in the WTC, unfortunately the phone lines were not working, he tried his cell, he could only leave a message on her cell.
Luckily she called to say that she hadn't got to work yet.
I tried to call my boyfriend in Queens, to tell him to turn on the TV and see whats happening on the news, no reply.
We looked out of our 21st floor office window, downtown and we could see the plumes of black smoke billowing up into the sky. What was going on!
We gathered into the conference room and put the TV on. We couldn't believe what we were seeing and hearing, yet another plane had hit, was the United States under attack?
There were gasps,shouts of horror, when we heard the towers had collapsed.
There were reports that more planes had come down in Washington and there were other hijacked planed still in the air.
We were told we could go home, the bridges and subways had been closed,a colleague said I could go home with her, I managed to get thru to my boyfriend, who had been trying to contact me, the phone lines were working intermittently and I told him were I was going.
I am originally from the UK and have been in NY for nearly 2years & the strange thing was my family & friends in England, could get thru easier than I could to Queens. They had heard about the terrible news and were worried and couldn't believe what was going on.
As we walked Uptown, it was surreal, we could smell the arid smoke, we didn't notice any vehicles, there seemed to be no sounds coming from others on the street,we could see people in bars crowded round the TV trying to make sense of what was going on..But who could!
Watching the events unfold on TV, it was unbelievable,it looked like it was a scene from a movie. As soon as it was annouced that the subways were running again, I left, all I wanted to do was get home to Andy.
From the 7 line as the train rounded Queens Brough you can usually get a magnificent view of the Manhatten skyline, there were 2 buildings missing that day.

My heart goes out to all those familes & friends who have lost loved ones in the Worldtrade Centre,Washington and of all those innocent airline passengers.



Citation

“story4406.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed February 14, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/13175.