To be that close that you could see the smoke. I imagine that when the smoke dissipated, the absence of those buildings was also chilling.
I live two and a half hours from NYC.
I grew up with those buildings as a fixture - either seeing them in person (starting with their construction in the early 70’s, which we could see through binoculars from the yard of our house on a hilltop just north of Princeton - probably 40 miles as the crow flies), or in the old WPIX spots on TV. WPIX was channel 11 in New York (back when there were only 13 channels, and you only got 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13!), and they used the towers to represent the number “11”. I dined at Windows on the World (the restaurant atop the North tower) several times when I worked in Manhattan. Being there, looking out over Manhattan, always gave me goosebumps. I was always struck by the magnificence of mankind, and of this country, to create such a place as New York. Yes, it can be gritty and dirty (and repugnantly liberal), but I still love it anyway.
I’m sure there are many Freepers who were much closer than I was, but it certainly did hit close to home.