For those unfamiliar with the city, Union Square is located above the word "Manhattan", WTC was above the words "financial district" and just to the right of the little 9A symbol.
Looks like a little over two miles. Chelsea would have had to RUN, instead of "finding herself wandering downtown", in order to be anywhere close when the first tower fell.
Clinton was near Union Square, at the apartment of longtime friend Nicole Davison, when the first hijacked airliner hit Tower One. Davison, who had left for work, called Clinton and told her to stay where she was.
So, she wasn't jogging, she wasn't having coffee, she wasn't even outside when the first plane hit. And Union Square is not exactly next door to the WTC. Time the first plane hit: 8:48 a.m.
Like many Americans that day, Clinton turned on the television and watched as the second plane hit.
Time the second plane hit: approximately 9:07 a.m.
"I tried to call my mother, but after I said hello to her assistant the line went dead," Clinton wrote.
Okay, remember the story about how Hillary didn't know for hours if her daughter was safe? This is a lie, of course -- she reached Hillary's assistant before the phone went dead!
She ventured outside to find a working telephone, and ended up walking downtown -- toward the towers.
So Chelsea didn't have a cell phone, wasn't around anybody with a cell phone, her friend's land line phone was dead, and what does she decide to do -- walk towards downtown to find a working phone? Give me a break.
"I remember very little about how I got so far downtown. ... I don't know whether I was on the corner or in the middle of the block," she wrote. "I do remember standing in line at a phone somewhere and hearing a deafening rumble." The noise Clinton heard was the collapse of Tower Two.
Look at the timeline -- she was still indoors when the second tower got hit, which was 9:07 a.m. Tower Two collapsed at 10:00 a.m. And don't forget that she was in the apartment attempting to call her mother after the second tower got hit. Let's say, for argument's sake, that she left the apartment at 9:15. How far downtown do you think she could have gotten, considering the hordes of people heading uptown? She certainly would not have made it very close in those 45 minutes -- perhaps she could have walked one mile, but I doubt even that. And notice how she has this convenient memory lapse about not remembering exactly how she got that far downtown.
2.5 miles, actually.
I love Chelsea bashing, but - speaking as someone who used to live on Union Square West - she wouldn't have had any trouble making it down there in the time frame she claims. It was roughly 1 hour 20 minutes from the first plane impact until the South Tower fell. It only takes about 15 minutes to walk a mile.