story2499.xml

story2499.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

At 8:45 am on September 11, I was having breakfast with two friends at a restaurant at Grand Central in midtown New York, several miles form the World Trade Center. Just as we had finsihed paying the bill, at about 9:00 am, we heard an announcement over a PA system advising us that "due to an incident at the World Trade Center, this building is now CLOSED. Proceed to the nearest exit immediately." This seemed like such a strange announcement, that no one reacted right away. About 5 seconds later came a second announcement, "We repeat, proceed to the nearest exit IMMEDIATELY." With that, everyone quickly got up and left. We headed to the north exit on to 45th Street, where we started hearing stories that the WTC had been bombed. We walked over to Madison Ave, where we could see downtown to the WTC and see it in flames. At that moment, the second plane had just hit. Throngs of us just sat watching the towers and a TV monitor in the window of a nearby bank. After about an hour or so, people walking uptown from the WTC area started appearing in midtown, their faces and clothes covered in dust and debris. It was almost like a scene out of Night of the Living Dead. The rest of the day was spent giving blood, watching the horrible events unfold across the country and trying to figure out how to get home to Westchester County, since the roads and trains had been shut down. We also shuddered every time we heard one of the F-16's fly overhead, not knowing if it was the next attack. The following morning, September 12, I took my normal train into Grand Central. The Terminal was almost empty, except for the numerous soldiers with their automatic rifles. As I walked out onto the street, I was struck by the absolute silence. Normally, there would be thousands of people scurrying about getting their newspapers and coffee and heading up to their offices. Not that day. As I walked out of the station, there were exactly two people on the street, me and a woman heading to work. We looked at each other, gave each other one of those "what's gong on here?" kind of looks and started to walk up Madison. As I looked back at her, she was crying. It was a surreal scene. A similar mood prevailed for a couple of days. By Friday afternoon (9/14), we first started to feel a sense that some of the normal noise of the City was beginning to return. Overall, it was what the attack did to the noise and energy level of the city that I'll remember most