story4417.xml

story4417.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

The morning of September 11, 2001 was my first day of interning on Capitol Hill for Senator Peter Fitzgerald. I rode down to Capitol Hill from my school, American University, in the AUTO van with several of my friends who were all headed to internships downtown as well. Once there, I had a few minutes to burn, so I headed down to the coffee shop in the basement of the Dirkson building to get some breakfast. As I got into line for a bagel I passed a television and at first I didn?t even notice what was on the screen. After a few minutes, I realized that it was a live picture of the World Trade Center in New York City and it was on fire. The news correspondent was saying that a few minutes ago, a plane had flown directly into one of the towers. Nobody knew if it had been an accident or a deliberate action. I watched for a few more minutes, thinking that it must have been an accident and how sorry I was for all the people involved. A plane landing at one of the New York airports must have flown off course and hit the building. I moved ahead in line to get my bagel and promptly forgot about the plane crash. I was starting to feel nervous about starting my internship.

Several minutes later I found myself sitting in the newly painted reception area of Senator Fitzgerald?s office, waiting for the intern coordinator. I watched television while I waited for her to come out. The picture on the screen was still of the WTC, but this time, both of the towers were burning. Staffers began to gather around the television and raised the possibility that this might be a deliberate attack on the United States and that being in a federal building might not be very safe. Some said that it might be wise to evacuate the building, just in case something else happened. Most of the staff immediately dismissed the possibility that anything would happen in Washington and everyone returned to their work.

Fifteen minutes later, the intern coordinator came out and took me on a quick tour of the office. We ended up in the mailroom and she had just settled me down with a pile of letters to open when one of the staff members sitting near me screamed and pointed towards the television sitting on top of a file cabinet. The Pentagon had been hit. Nobody knew what we should do, if anything. The office manager called the Capitol Police and informed them that the Pentagon was on fire (as if they didn?t know). The idea of evacuating the building was raised once again by some of the staff, but most people decided against it. Just then, CNN starting reporting that both the White House and State Department had been hit as well. Those rumors later turned out to be untrue, but at that moment my concern was not for myself, but for my friends who were interning at both those places this morning. ?Please,? I thought. ?Let them be okay.? I returned to my letters, but I never got any farther than slitting the first envelope. Just then, a Capitol Police officer ran through the door behind my desk yelling, ?Everyone get out NOW! The city is under attack! Move!?

At that point, things started to happen fast. Doors began to slam and then lock all around me and I heard someone yelling to Andrew (the mail guy) to make sure that I got out safely. I barely had time to grab my bag before Andrew dragged me out the door with him and into the crowded hallway. Once I was outside the scene didn?t get any better. All of Capitol Hill seemed to be streaming out of the buildings and the crowds were so thick I could barely walk. Cars were trying to exit the parking lot but the streets were so full of people that they couldn?t move. Black smoke was rising from the direction of the Pentagon and the crowd seemed to be growing more hysterical by the minute. I, like everyone else, pulled out my cell phone, but there was no signal. ?Figures,? I thought to myself. ?I bought this for an emergency and now that there is one it doesn?t even work.? I began to walk towards Union Station to catch the Metro home. When I got there I decided that it might be a good idea to call my mother and let her know I was okay. I headed straight for the pay phones and after several unsuccessful attempts, managed to get through to her voice mail and left a message telling her that I was safe and headed back to campus.

I?d no sooner hung up the phone than Union Station was evacuated. A policeman saw me and immediately ordered me to leave. As I was exiting the building, I saw a line forming for taxies. I figured that other than walking, this might be the only way I was getting home, so I headed over to join the line. Just as I reached the end, I heard someone call my name. It was Jen, one of the receptionists in Fitzgerald?s office who I?d met earlier that morning. She was standing with her boyfriend, Chad, who also worked on Capitol Hill. As it turned out, we were all heading in the same direction, so we decided to split a cab. While we stood in line, we watched the smoke and flames shoot up from the direction of the Pentagon, clearly visible against the blue sky. I couldn?t help thinking how surreal the entire scene was; it was such a beautiful morning and the smoke and flames seemed completely out of place.

Just as Jen, Chad, and I reached the head of the line, the police ordered the entire area around the Capitol evacuated, including the outside of Union Station. All the taxies drove away and hundreds of people were left standing there. As the three of us stood there wondering how we were going to get home, a policeman started directing everyone away from the train station and towards the downtown area. There was no choice but to follow the crowd, even though we really weren?t sure where we were going to end up.

We walked for the rest of the morning and into the early afternoon. At one point we stopped at a store that had a television in the window. There we watched the second of the two World Trade Center towers fall to the ground in a pile of smoke and dust. For the first time that morning, the full impact of what had happened hit me. Everyone in the crowd started to cry, but there was no time to dwell on what had happened. The sidewalks were jammed with pedestrians and the streets were in gridlock; everyone was trying to get out of the city but there wasn?t anywhere to move. As we made our way into the northwest part of the city we passed the embassies, most of which were heavily guarded now. Police cars and fire engines from surrounding areas were attempting to wind their way downtown to the Pentagon and overhead we could see helicopters flying in from all directions.

When we reached Adams Morgan we stood still for a moment and looked down towards the cloud of smoke rising from below, taking the entire situation in. Eventually, the three of us found a restaurant that was open and serving food, so we decided to stop and have lunch as long as we had the chance. After eating we checked out the status of the Metro and the red line was indeed up and running, at least to where I needed to go. Although I had no desire to go underground at the moment, I decided to risk it and took the most nerve-wracking Metro ride of my life back to campus, arriving back a full 6 hours after being evacuated from Capitol Hill that morning.