cicch95

I was on vacation that week. I was driving over to my Mom and Dad's house when I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the WTC. At first I thought, like most people did....wow that sucks. Then when I got home and saw the news it all set in. I sat for the next three days watching the news.

We will not forget! It is days and times like that when you realize what being an American really is all about. Remembering that we were attacked on our own soil, made is just a little easier to be away from my wife and kids when duty called and I was sent to the desert. God Bless America.

C5 Curmudgeon

I had watched the Giants play on MNF the previous evening, and having watched it to the end, decided to go in late the next morning. I was listening to Imus while shaving when Warner Wolf (who lives somewhere downtown) called in to say that a plane had hit the WTC. I finished up, and went to my bedroom and turned on the TV. At that point I figured it was an accident, the FDNY would put the fire out, and they would fix the building the way they did the Empire State building when a plane hit it in the 1940's. That's when I saw the fireball from the second plane going in. I can remember saying to myself: "This was no accident, it's terrorism" and then thinking: "We're at war." Funny thing is, the view I saw on TV didn't show the plane going in so at first I thought that the second explosion was a bomb.

My thoughts then turned to my sister, who works about 3 blocks away from the WTC. I called her office, but only got her voicemail. Tried to get her cellphone, but the lines were jammed. Called my mother to see if she had any info, and the answer was no. After that I kept calling about every hour, but couldn't get through.

Finally, around 8pm I was able to get through. My sister was OK! Turns out they evacuated the building where she works after the first building collapsed, and since the subways had been closed down, she had to hoof it across the Brooklyn Bridge. For some reason, she turned around to look back just as the second tower started to collapse. At that point, she said she just took off, thinking that she would be safe from any other attacks once she got over the bridge and onto land in Brooklyn.

She then started trudging along the BQE to get to her home in Queens. She ended up walking with a couple of other women. One of them was able to get her husband on the cell phone, and he picked them up and drove my sister and the other woman home!

It was a long afternoon waiting to find out if my sister had made it.

She still has the dust covered shoes she wore that day.

Rogue Wave

I headed for work as usual and drove by the Keyport waterfront. A beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and very clear. Great for a nice view of the NY city skyline.

Looking across I could see the towers and it looked like something was blowing off the top of them, I thought it was condensation/fog from the air conditioners on the roof or something.

I remember thinking it was a bit heavy, but who would have thought. And since I had to pay attention to driving I continued on my way. Unknown to me at the time it was within minutes after the 2nd plane hit.

When I got to work 15 minutes later CNN was on the TV's in the lobby. It was a couple hours before I made it to my desk. I and most of my coworker (and most of the country) were in shock.

I left the office around noon and came home and got my daughter (then a college student) and we went back to the Keyport Bay and looked across at the smoke for awhile. By then of course the building were gone.

Later that night we drove back and sat and looked across. Amazing how quiet it was. Normally there is aircraft traffic overhead for all 3 NY airports. Not that night.

Very sad.

Immaculate

I just sat here and read every reply. I couldn't stop reading them no matter how upset and angry I got. Again, like all of us I will never forget where I was. At the time I was teaching 2nd grade. I was teaching reading groups at the carpet by the chalkboard (remember reading groups on the carpet?). It was a great day and the children were doing a great job, I was in a great mood. Everything was going great. I would always keep my door shut to drown out the bathroom traffic outside my door, well my door opens and it was my Assistant Principal. She walked over with this really sad face and whispers in my ear that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Being a native New Yorker and knowing that my best friend growing up was in Tower I 87th floor made me want to cry right there. I'm not an emotional person either. Not knowing it was terrorist activity, just knowing that my best friend may have just passed... well you know. The thing that I remember most is how emotional I was yet how I had to keep calm because I had a class of 25 students that were wondering why I sent them back to there seats. I quickly called my friend with no avail. I called all family members to make sure everyone was accounted for. All I wanted to do was talk to my friend and cry, yet I had remain calm and cool. The schools all closed early and parents were banging down the door to get there kids. It was hard to do my job, release the children in a non-chaotic mannner which of course took time. These parents wanted there childern all at the same time. After the last child left I flew to pick up my wife and 5 month old. I kept calling and calling my friend. Again, no avail. At approx. 10pm he called and said "how was your day at work?" He was in a total state of shock. He doesn't even remember saying that to me. At the time I thought "what the hell is wrong with you?" He went to work late that day and was listening to a disc man or something when he walked out on the street a few blocks away and couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't even know anything was even going on. Sorry for the ramble but feels good to get that off of my chest.

gbsvette

I'm a network engineer for a financial institution in Rockefeller Center, right by the NBC studios. From the south side of my building, I and others watched the second plane fly by the Empire State Building and hit Tower #2. The building was evacuated at 9:35. People were wandering around the street not knowing what to do or where to go. Everything was already shutting down, trains, subways and buses.
I walked back to Penn Station to try and catch a train out of the city, but by then, it had been already closed.
I then walked across town and when I got to 33rd & Broadway, we heard a noise that sounded like thunder in the distance. I looked down Broadway and saw Tower # 1 collapse. You could see a mountain of concrete and glass falling, then nothing but smoke and dust. That's what happened, and that's what you've seen a million times on TV, but words and pictures can't really describe actually experiencing it.
It was the most sickening and unbelievable sight I have ever seen. I felt like I was going to throw up. Thankfully, I was far enough away to be otherwise unhurt. I made it to a friends apartment around 11:30 and we just sat and watched the TV. From his apartment we saw thousands of people walking over the 59th Street bridge. I finally got out of the city around 6:30. I still get sad when I think about it.

Rest in peace. 343.

cjlaw73

Was at a remediation site in City of Industry, CA. We were loading out soil in the early am when one of the dump truck drivers was listening to Howard Stern and told us. We all ran into the factory's break room and turned on the news.

C6 DVL

Fox-News @ 10 P.M.
Tues. they aired "The Children of 9/11"
Wed. they aired " The Teens on 9/11"

It brought tears to my eyes

Very sad indeed

True story: Believe it or not

During the 9/11 time, I was working in a dealership in the Bronx, (Throggs Neck Area) We sold a 1993 Buick Roadmaster Station wagon to a Funeral Parlor. It was used, & the Funeral Parlor needed a car like that to pick-up bodies. They gave a deposit on 9/7 (friday) and said will pick it up on tuesday (9/11). Thats not the shocking part of the story. The shocking part was, the plates that were next in line ended with 911 !!! When they came in to pick-up the Buick and seeing their plate ending with 911 they froze and broke out in tears.

Drew M

when i found out about the first plane: gym class.
when i found out about the second plane and watched them fall: history class.

82X-FireVette

My wife and I were on Disney's cruise ship..the Magic. We were getting ready to disembark to go to the beach on Disney's beautiful island, Castaway Cay. Our friends in the next cabin called and told us to turn the TV on to CNN and see the plane that crashed into the WTC. As we were watching, the second plane hit. I figured this was deliberate after the second hit. As we went to the beach, two girls heard us talking about it and asked what we were taliking about. We told them and one said she worked there then ran back to the ship in tears. While we were on the beach, people kept coming by giving us more bad news..plane hit the Pentagon...plane went down in PA.....tower one collapsed....tower two collapsed. Many people on the beach were crying. The trip back to the US was very somber and quiet.

The following Columbus day weekend, we held a Corvettes For America parade up and down International Drive in Orlando. Hundreds of Corvettes with flags waving and horns blaring put on a very patriotic parade and car show. It was very uplifting.

We will never forget the heros that gave their lives to save others. Those New Yokers are true Americans, the bravest of the brave, strongest of the strong. God bless you all.

froogleyankee

I was working in a building over at 33rd & 10th, and after the rumor of a small plane hitting the tower, a bunch of us ran out to the huge deck we had and sood there speechless... everyone wondering how the heck would they put that out...

I'll never forget the graceful swooping arc of what we thought was an "observation plane" or something across the sky, when it barrelled into the second tower.
No noise as we were too far away, just a massive fireball...
I ran downstairs, got a cab on 10th ave at like 9:07am and got to my family uptown...

It's especially strange on a week like this, when the temperature, the color of the sky, and the humidity is precisely what you felt the morning of 9/11. Crisp, beautiful, clear, pure....

Your senses are perma-conditioned to recall everything about "where you were".

85C4fanatic

That day is burned into my memory like everyother American. I took my 1.5 year old son for a walk around the block with a neighbor. The sky was as blue as I had seen it all summer, but there was the smell of fall in the morning air. I got back in the house and turned on MSNBC and I couldnt believe what I was seeing and hearing the first plane had already hit and then BANG the second. Shortly after they announced that there were other palnes missing it was becoming very clear what was happening. My sister was staying with us at the time because she was about to move into a new house. I called both her and my wife. They both said they were coming home. Finally coming to my senses about what was going on I told both to stop and take out as much cash as the bank would allow for a one day transaction and head home.(Not knowing what the heck was next). What really got to me was I couldnt drag myself away from that d@*n TV for weeks after just hoping they would find someone alive. That night as I went to bed I had three questions. Who are these people that did this? Why? and lastly What kind of world is my son going to grow up in? Those bastards took a little something from everyone some lost more.........
For anyone that wants to read deeper here are the oral Histories from the rescuers. I must warn you once I started to read them I had a hard time stopping.....
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/package...s_full_01.html

ghostRder

Being retired from UPS I was home, my daughter woke me after the first plane hit then we watch horrified as the second one hit, I'll never forget that aweful moment when the first tower came crashing to the ground it was surreal as if you were watching a Sci-fi movie. One of our fellow UPSer's lost his son on that never-to-be forgotten day....

hhntr111

I was in London, so it was early afternoon when people came in to the conference room with the news. We kind of blew it off as some poor guy ina small plane until the second plane hit. I was stuck in Europe for that week, but the support of the Europeans that week was unforgettable.

We live in Connecticut, about 40 miles from NYC, and I couldn't reach my family for almost a whole day. My wife is a volunteer firefighter, and I didn't know whether her unit had been called into NYC or not. All was ok, but my perception of the world and our so-called security bubble has changed forever.

love my car

I was working at the borgata in atlantic city.We where building it.We where pouring the 10th floor on the west side.Someone called up on one of the 2ways that a plane just hit the world trade building.We all thought it was some small plane.But when word came about the 2nd plane,it was like o my god.Then when all planes where grounded it was like unreal,to see planes flying back to the airport.Then seeing f16s buzzing the atlantic city skyline.Am unforgettable day.One year later the whole job went to the 10th floor and at the same time when the first plane hit you could here a pin drop.Ill never forget it.10TH floor borgata.That has a special place for all of us.Kevin Harrington local 2 cement masons.

J Z06

I was just waking up, around 9:30 a.m.

I will never forget what a BEAUTIFUL day I thought it was, sunny skies, VERY comfy temps...and then I walked down the hallway only to see the second time EVER(First time was when she lost her mom) My Mom's face was WHITE as a ghost. She said "You're not going to believe this, they blew up the world trade center we're going to go to war" Over and over again, I watched the footage and wondered where the towers we're. It was one of the hardest things I had to come to grips with.

It freaks me out each time I go over the throgs neck or whitestone NOT to see the towers. I ate at windows on the world in 1985 for my sisters birthday.

What a day that was.

PRNDL

excuse me for shouting, but WHY DID WE ALL THINK THE FIRST PLANE WAS A SMALL PLANE?? A CESSNA? Look how many were told or heard a report that it was a small plane and therefor thought it was an accident? I was asleep and my wife woke me up and told me a small plane had crashed into the WTC. I went bak to sleep... a while later she came back and told me a second plane had crashed into the other tower. I immediately said, "Terrorists?" and got up and parked in front of the TV for the rest of the day.

Rich Silvestris

I was in LA. The GF (now the wife) and I went out there to attend her cousin's wedding. She had been fretting about getting some work done before we left, but I insisted we spend a whole week. The plan was to spend some time with the happy couple before the wedding and to take in some of the sights. We flew out of Logan on AA Flight 11 on Sunday.

Early Tuesday morning I was standing in line at NBC to get tix for the Tonight Show. A couple of people in line got cell phone calls, and we started getting a not-too-sure story about what was going on. I had no concept of the horrific scene that was unfolding in NYC!

She had seen the second plane hit on the TV in the hotel lobby. When I returned we began talking about what to do. We spent some time with the "happy couple" and decided that the next day we would start driving East. Tall buildings in LA were being evacuated and highway segments shut down. I, too, was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and wanted to get back home where I would be close to my kids.

So we drove home in the rental car. No planes in the skies from coast to coast. No problems getting hotel rooms. No cops out on speed patrols. We spoke with people from all over the place on our rest stops. Everybody was stunned and heartsick and angry. People in the hotels gasped when they saw our airline luggage tags. We got home the following Monday, and I went back to work the next day. The other shoe hadn't dropped.

It's four years later. I still have the Tonight Show tickets and those luggage tags. I still don't understand what motivates people to do such ghastly evil things. I'm still waiting to hear that OBL has been captured or killed, and I don't think the man in Washington has remained as interested.

Tommy D

I was at home waiting to be called to testify at the divorce trial of one of our partners. As I was getting ready, my daughter called from LA and told me that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center and how happy she was that I was not at work in the Empire State Building.

While we were on the phone, I turned on my TV just as the second plane hit. At that moment, I realized that this was a terrorist attack and that I should call work. I wished my daughter a happy birthday and hung up the phone and tried to call work. The phone lines were not working and I felt helpless as I tried to reconcile what I had just seen on TV. I will never forget the smell in the air the next day.

My wife who teaches at the local catholic elementary school really had a difficult day as one of her children lost her father and one of her aids lost her son. It was a very difficult time for all of us. Please pray for all of those innocent people who lost their lives that day.

RPOZ51

I already gave mine, but I was with an old friend yesterday, who I used to work with when I was at the WTC. She gave me her story:

She started working in 2WTC (the south tower) since it opened. On 9/11/01, she was working on the 91st floor, when people started shouting that 1WTC was on fire. She had been in the building in 1993, and was pretty much trapped all day. So, all she knew was that she had to get out of the building.

She took an elevator down to the 78th floor sky lobby with her boss, and people from her group. There, they met two girls who had been smoking in front of the building, when 1WTC was hit. They came back up to get their bags. Their boss said, "I'll go up with you." The two girls got their bags, then went back down, and are okay.

The boss heard the PA announcement that 2WTC was secure, and everyone could go back. So, he stayed on 91, and answered the telephones. One call was from my friend's mom, and her boss assured her mom that my friend was okay. Another call was from the boss' wife. She was watching everything on TV, and was talking on the phone with him as the she watched the second plane hit 2WTC. He was never found.

Meanwhile, my friend took an elevator from 78 down to 44, and started walking down from 44. She was in the stairwell when the second plane hit. She said the force of the impact kind of threw her off balance. She made her way out of the building and to the subway. As her train was going over the Manhattan Bridge, she looked back to see 2WTC come down.

GS_V

If you were around when this thread was started........