I was home from work that day, watching the NBC news. When the first plane hit, I immediately thought something had gone wrong with the pilot or his guidance (I don’t know much about planes.)
When the second one hit, I knew it was intentional. Started calling cousins to see if everyone we had in NYC was safe.
I’ve never again experienced one of those gorgeous September days we get in the DC area, without thinking of 9/11.
It was my second week at my new job. I was attending my first morning meeting on the 54th floor. Our conference room had a clear view of the WTC. One of my team members was in the conference room and was on the phone with his sister who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was the 105th floor.
From our window we saw the smoke coming out of the tower. Suddenly my friends phone disconnected. He looked out the window, saw what was going on and just stared out into space. We didn’t yet know what had happened. We saw helicopters circling the trade center and then another cloud of smoke for the second tower. Now all the televisions on the floor were reporting what happened. From our window we watched the towers collapse.
We moved further north to our office on 55th street. We were released from work an hour later. I went to Citicorp Center to donate blood. After waiting on line for an hour we were told we weren’t needed. I took this as no one survived. I lived in central Jersey so the only option I had to get home was by ferry. Our company provided lists of people willing to take someone in for the night, but I wanted to get home.
I went to the ferry terminal. People were waiting to get on the boats. The crews were asking that anyone who was within a 10 block area of the WTC to board the boat and move to the front. Others would then board. I was one of the others. I heard several people say they wanted to get on board so they said they were in the blast zone. When the boats hit NJ, they were the first off, and shuffled to a decontamination area to be scrubbed down.
I made my way to the path train which was running only in Jersey. I was dropped off and someone who saw me walking the street took me in to give me a drink and let me make a call. One thing I noticed was workers at the train station were walking the parking lot chalking tires. I called my wife, told her where I was and would meet her at a local hotel. Turns out the person who took me in lived next door to my boss. The man dropped me off at the hotel and wished me luck getting home since the highways were closed.
My wife picked me up at the hotel a couple of hours later. was sitting in the lobby with dozens of people and we were offered drinks, which most of us eagerly accepted. Turns out my wife earlier that day, once she heard about the attack, went to my kids school and took them home.
The next morning I went to pick up my car at the bus terminal. My tire had chalk on it. The attendant walking around chalking tires said “welcome home.” That’s when I finally realized what had happened. I sat in my car for the next hour and cried. I had several friends who worked in the towers. Not one of them came home.