story944.xml
Title
story944.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2002-07-29
911DA Story: Story
Five minutes before the first plane hit, I walked past the World Trade Center, coming down Church St. from SoHo, same as nearly every other day. It was a stunningly beautiful day, though I was mad at myself for wearing black (again). I was early-ish for work at Broadway and Rector Street (about four block south of WTC). When I entered the (small) office only two people were there. I picked up the ringing reception phone as I walked by and my boss's wife screamed "a plane hit the World Trade Center!" So I ran back out to see, got to the subway entrance at Rector and Trinity I think, and I tipped my head back and watch a (seemingly small) fire burn atop the north tower.
As I stared, trying to figure our how bad it was, my entire eyeline was filled with the second plane coming in over my shoulder from the south. I thought it was somehow a rescue plane or army plane there to put out the fire. It was SO low, and SO loud. As it approached the towers, I then thought it was going to go between the towers, maybe doing some kind of reconnaissance.
The explosion made me gasp. The fireball was enormous and I immediately thought, oh war. War. I also thought, briefly, maybe just maybe it's a movie? And then I ran because I thought the building would fall on me. I got to just above Battery Park and wandered around with all the other shocked people trying to make cell phone calls, until I stupidly went back in to work, where we were soon trapped because the buildings collapsed. For hours we watched the smoke and debris float by our windows, first white and then black as night.
When we could leave, the area looked like a war zone. We walked to the east and up through Chinatown and I had to run past any tall buildings.
I felt relieved to not to have known anyone in either building (amazing), but the sadness remains. I still have nightmares (always planes coming in from a distance and crashing near me and my family at my childhood home in Maine). And I will never ever forget the smell that lingered for so many weeks afterwards, wafting up into my apt. Sometimes my blow dryer has that smell and I have to turn it off and feel bad.
As I stared, trying to figure our how bad it was, my entire eyeline was filled with the second plane coming in over my shoulder from the south. I thought it was somehow a rescue plane or army plane there to put out the fire. It was SO low, and SO loud. As it approached the towers, I then thought it was going to go between the towers, maybe doing some kind of reconnaissance.
The explosion made me gasp. The fireball was enormous and I immediately thought, oh war. War. I also thought, briefly, maybe just maybe it's a movie? And then I ran because I thought the building would fall on me. I got to just above Battery Park and wandered around with all the other shocked people trying to make cell phone calls, until I stupidly went back in to work, where we were soon trapped because the buildings collapsed. For hours we watched the smoke and debris float by our windows, first white and then black as night.
When we could leave, the area looked like a war zone. We walked to the east and up through Chinatown and I had to run past any tall buildings.
I felt relieved to not to have known anyone in either building (amazing), but the sadness remains. I still have nightmares (always planes coming in from a distance and crashing near me and my family at my childhood home in Maine). And I will never ever forget the smell that lingered for so many weeks afterwards, wafting up into my apt. Sometimes my blow dryer has that smell and I have to turn it off and feel bad.
Collection
Citation
“story944.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed January 10, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/9227.