nmah6494.xml

nmah6494.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-04-08

I had always been fascinated by the World Trade Center since I was a little boy. I would build models of it with my Lego blocks, would collect pictures and newspaper clippings about it, and had the opportunity to visit the observation deck twice.

I worked in a building about 15 blocks from the WTC. I had an awesome view of the towers from my office, and would often look at them or go onto the roof of my building and take photos of them. Many a lunch hour was spent sitting in the plaza between the towers, marveling at the complex while eating my lunch.

One of the things that stays with me most from September 11th is the fact that it was a picture perfect day in NYC. There wasn't a cloud in the beautiful blue sky. I was running a few minutes late (as usual) to work that morning, arriving at Penn Station via the Long Island Railroad at around 8:50am. With my Walkman blasting in my ears, I hopped on the #9 train downtown. The subway was moving really slow; I thought nothing of it. But I did notice an added police presence on the subway platform, and had noticed there was a TV reporter standing next to me on the subway. Something was wrong.

At around 9:05 at Christopher Street, the TV reporter had gotten off, and I figured I should get off also and walk the rest of the way to my office since the subway was still moving at a snail's pace. I also could get the scoop on what was happening by following the TV reporter. As soon as I ascended the stairs of the subway station onto street level, I saw what was wrong.

In the distance, about a quarter of a mile away, the WTC was on fire. It was an image I'll never forget as long as I live. You could've knocked me over with a feather; my jaw must've been on the ground.

It was an oddly colorful scene; the bright white of the towers offset by the clear blue sky, black smoke trailing behind, orange flames of fire throughout the upper floors. I recall my first instinct was to buy a disposable camera and start taking pictures, but I didn't have a penny on me. I surveyed the damage, and actually said to myself that either Godzilla was loose in the city and had taken a bite out of the North Tower or that a plane had crashed into the building. I assumed that the plane must've hit the North Tower accidentally at an odd angle and somehow deflected into the South Tower, causing the damage there. I approached a group of people talking about what happened and finally took off my headphones, and got the true story. Two planes had crashed, one into each tower--a deliberate terrorist attack. I had missed witnessing the 2nd planes impact by seconds.

I put my Walkman back on and was listening to news radio to get more info on the attack. Scores of ambulances and police vehicles sped past me, sirens blaring. People in cars were parked with windows/doors opened, surrounded by people who listened in for radio reports.

I watched until about 9:45, then decided to get to my office. I knew I had a pretty good excuse for being late to work, but even this was pushing it. I got to my office about 10 minutes later. I chatted with a friend who had witnessed the 2nd plane's impact and he was pretty upset. I tried to call my wife, my mother, and my sister (who was on a plane flying from Florida to NY at that very moment) to no avail, neither my cell phone nor office phone was working. I unsuccessfully tried to access the Internet for more info on the attacks. The was no way in or out of NYC at this time, all subways, trains, bridges, and tunnels were closed.

As I was walking to the southern-facing offices for a peek, I heard a collective scream from my co-workers. I sprinted down the hall and looked out the window and saw a huge wall of dust envelop the South Tower. It had apparently collapsed.

Never for one second during the day did I thought the towers would collapse. I recall wondering how odd the towers would look with the burn marks and damage once the fires were put out. I wondered if they would set up scaffolding around the buildings while they were repairing them. And even after the collapse of the South Tower, I imagined that it was probably only the top of the building that fell--no way could the whole tower be gone! Not thinking clearly, I suspected that a bomb had been planted in the building beforehand, and the flames from the plane fuel had ignited it and caused a huge explosion that leveled the tower. Even then, I thought that lower Manhattan would look weird from now on with only one Trade Center tower standing.

From that moment on, I tried not to take my eyes off of the North Tower. It finally dawned on me that if one tower had collapsed, that the other one would follow suit. But when news that the Pentagon was on fire and probably hit by another plane, I assumed that all USA landmarks were under attack. I looked at the Statue of Liberty and wondered if I would be witness to her destruction by a plane. I was amazed by the throng of humanity that was walking northward, away from the WTC site, via the West Side Highway; it seemed like hundreds of thousands of people.

I talked with co-workers while watching the North Tower burn. From my vantage point, I could see the reddish-orange flames seemingly move left to right, from office to office, floor to floor. At that time, the tower began to crumble downward. I recall paying close attention to the huge antenna on top of the roof, and how it seemed to drop straight down. I said the time aloud, 10:28.

Oddly, I never thought about the death toll until then. I had selfishly taken an inventory in my head and was relieved that I didn't know anyone who worked in the towers. I imagined that the people/hijackers on the planes were dead, as well as whoever was in the buildings at the point of impact. I hoped that many of them were late to work, as I was that morning. But I never thought of the rescue workers, police or firemen until that moment.

I walked to my boss' office, and told her that I was in no shape to work after what I had just witnessed. The president of my company assembled the troops and told us we could leave work and take the next day off and be back on Thursday, and that there would be grief counselors to talk to then. I was able for the first time to call out and get in touch with my mother; it turns out I was the last one in the family who had been accounted for and she was quite relieved. She knew I worked near the WTC but not sure how close.

So at around 11:20, I left my building for the long walk north to Penn Station. I refused to look toward ground zero; I didn't want to see the debris from the destruction of my favorite buildings. My friend and I were discussing how this was so much worse of an event than Pearl Harbor. It was also the only time I was afraid--would another hijacked plane kill me while I was standing next to another target in NYC? I got to Penn Station, which was locked down, at 12:15. I was finally able to get a cell phone call to my wife and tell her I was OK but nowhere near coming home yet.

I walked around Penn Station/Madison Square Garden, and then was able to get some money from an ATM, because I figured I might have to sleep in a hotel or something if the city was still locked down. I sat on a sidewalk and ate my lunch while military fighter jets buzzed above us. The space in front of Penn Station on he 7th Avenue side was like human gridlock, I can only imagine this was what New Year's Eve in Times Square was like.

I started to see people filing into Penn Station at around 2pm. I quickly joined them and boarded a train back to Long Island. The train was so overcrowded, much like the Japanese subways (where they hire people to push as many people onto the trains as possible). I was packed in so tight I could barely breathe, but I was happy to be leaving Manhattan. Some of the people around me had dust and debris all over their clothes; you could tell they were near the towers when they fell. The train slowly headed east, and it turns out I arrived home at around 3:15 or so.

I received so many phone calls that day, from people who knew I worked near the WTC who were wondering if I was OK. I began watching the TV coverage, I was amazed to see the footage of the planes hitting the towers and the collapses from other angles than the vantage point I had that morning. I popped in a blank videotape and began taping the television coverage nonstop. That night, I obviously couldn't sleep and had major nightmares about what I had seen. Although my office building was just outside of the major debris range, the streets were closed so emergency and recovery vehicles could have total access. I didnt return to work until the following Monday, the 17th. You could smell the smoke from the still-burning fires, and notice a hint of the dust cloud on windows from the towers collapses. I got an uneasy feeling whenever I would walk into an office that used to face south.

And to this day, about two and a half years later, I think about 9/11 and the day's event s almost constantly.