SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 - NEVER FORGET



I’ve been meaning to write this for three years – not because my experiences were that traumatic, nor that I suffered even a fraction of what tens of thousands of people suffered that day – those that were killed, injured or lost loved ones. Nevertheless, I feel that I have a duty to history to add my voice to the many others who have recorded the history of 9/11 from different vantage points. So forgive me the display of ego in thinking that someone might read this and care, but maybe my children, and their children might be interested to know.

On September 11, 2001 I arrived at work at 388 Greenwich Street as usual, sometime around 7AM and went upstairs to my office on the 36th floor. The back “wall” of the office was essentially a big window with a clear view about seven blocks south to the World Trade Center. (My building is the one directly above the second "N" of CNN in the photo above).

Around 8:45 that morning as I was sitting at my desk (with my back to the window) I heard what sounded like a plane. I figured it was one of those military show planes or small private planes that occasionally fly up the Hudson River. I turned around and immediately saw American Flight 11 out of the corner of my left eye. As I watched it, I first thought that it was odd that what looked like a passenger jet would be flying there, then thinking that maybe it was going into Newark Airport across the river and then that it didn’t look like it was going to make it….

To me it seemed as if the plane simply disappeared into the building, as if you threw a rock through a curtain of water. Now you see it, now you don’t. I didn’t even realize that there was a massive fireball until I saw the replays later on. Maybe my brain couldn’t process everything that was going on, or maybe I was looking for the plane to come out of the other side of the building.

I didn't think this was a terrorist act right away regardless of the fact that it was as clear a day as you could imagine. Working on “Wall Street” as I do, and having worked in the Twin Towers where the first plane hit, albeit 10 years before, I knew that people in the financial industry tended to work late nights and get it late in the morning so I figured that this is certainly a tragedy, but it could have been much worse.

After a few minutes, I went to call my wife to tell her to turn on CNN, since I was sure that it was on TV already. I didn’t think that watching the crash shook me that much, but I actually had to redial once or twice because my hands were shaking and I hit the wrong numbers. I’m pretty sure I told my wife not to worry, assuming it was just an accident, and that I was just watching it from my office. Afterwards, I called my mom in El Paso to tell her everything was OK (although she still doesn’t understand why I wasn’t already leaving the building).

At that point a number of people had begun to congregate in my boss’ office next door, since it was on a corner and was practically all windows. I saw what I thought was debris falling from the top floors of the burning building, but then realized that it was probably people jumping. I was too far away though to know for sure. I also remember telling people that I saw the plane go in, but not everyone believed me that I saw a "7-something-7" as I told them. How could a plane that big have just disappeared into the building? No one else had actually seen it happen, they just saw a hole in the building. Must have been a private plane like a Cessna they said....

Then, all of sudden, the second plane appeared out of nowhere since United Airlines 175 was coming from behind Tower 2 and the burning Tower 1. This time the explosion seemed immense and came in our direction. Not close enough to threaten us physically, but the shock was indescribable. Without saying a word, without getting our things, we all ran towards the stairwell. By that point people were talking about terrorism on the way down, although I myself still couldn’t believe it. Not that I could think of any other logical reason except some type of radar glitch that was sending planes on autopilot into lower Manhattan.

The descent was extremely orderly and I imagined it took about 15-20 minutes. By that point we had heard that all subways, railways, bridges and tunnels to and from Manhattan had been closed so there was nothing for us to do except to stand in the streets around the building and watch the fires.

At that time, I was commuting into the city by car and parked in an outdoor lot about a block north of my office. At the time I was just starting my photography hobby and always dreamed of being a journalist, so I always kept my camera in the trunk just in case. I walked over to the parking lot, but found that my car was actually on one of the lifts and the line of people trying to get their cars out was in credibly long. I gave up the search for the camera and thought that it wasn’t right to take pictures of the tragedy anyway. I’ve regretted not having pictures of such an important event ever since, especially as photo retrospectives kept popping up across lower Manhattan in the subsequent weeks as a means of remembrance.

I also used to leave my cell phone in the car. The funny thing is I used to keep it in the glove compartment in case of emergencies, and now I couldn’t get to it. (My cell phone is always with me now). However, after another short while just hanging around, I decided to see if I could get to my car. I decided not to just go home since it would have been difficult anyway. I did get to my cell phone, but like everyone else that morning, couldn’t get through to anyone because the lines were jammed. I still had not been able to talk to my wife since just after the first plane hit, so she had no idea where I was or how I was doing.

At that point I decided to walk over to West Street to get a better view of what was going on, while constantly trying to get through to my wife on the cell phone. Just before I got the intersection, I heard a huge boom and simultaneously got a hold of our answering machine at home. I remember saying something to the effect that I thought a third plane just came down in the street by the Twin Towers. I wish my wife had saved that message, but it was erased by the time I had gotten home later that day. I started asking people what happened and they said that Tower 2 had come down, as people started half walking and half running from further down the street. We were extremely lucky in that the winds that day were blowing in the opposite direction, so even though we were much closer to the building than many on the east and south sides, the cloud of debris only came about half way up the street to about Stuyvesant High School and never reached where we were. About half a block away was a taxi parked on the side of the street with its radio on. By that time I had heard that maybe some of the smaller bridges between Manhattan and the South Bronx were open. The radio station said that the Pentagon had been attacked to, which was when it really hit me. Not so much that we were under attack, which was obvious, but that there could be more and nobody knew when or where. That was the first time I thought that I would be just as safe driving home than hanging around – and who knew what would happen if Tower 1 or any of the other buildings fell?

I got my car from the parking lot and raced up the West Side. Needless to say there was no other traffic and the cops just waved me on as emergency vehicles were racing in the other direction. It’s almost embarrassing to write that these heroes were going into the inferno as I was rushing home, but the truth is what it is.

I eventually moved over to Tenth Avenue to drive uptown to Harlem. I consciously tried to stay closer to the West Side thinking that perhaps Times Square or the Empire State Building could be targets of attack. What struck me was that traffic was moving pretty normally and the people in the street seemed to be going about their lives as if nothing was going on! I wanted to get out of my car and scream – “Do you have any idea what I just saw! Do you know what’s going on! Why aren’t you glued to the nearest TV set?!?”

As I did finally get up to the Harlem area, I realized that I might need more gas to get home given all the traffic that I expected. I stopped at a gas station to fill up and I mentioned the attacks to one of the attendants and got some sort of non-memorable response about what was going on. Well, I figured maybe they didn’t have a TV and they couldn’t see what was going on, so it wasn’t such an immediate danger to them.

As I made my way towards one of the bridges into the South Bronx, I heard that the second tower fell, but I did not see it. To the yet to be informed, it was just another beautiful day in Manahttan with a lot of traffic.

This is where the story ends as far as the attacks and their immediate aftermath. I have other 9/11 related images and memories as well:

- The traffic on the way home to Rockland (3 ½ hours)
- The eventual collapse of 7 World Trade, another building where I used to work.
- Wondering whether the nuclear power plant 10 miles away would be attacked
- Working for a couple of weeks, including some overnight shifts at our backup facility in New Jersey as we watched the smoke eerily rise from lower Manhattan, wondering if another attack was coming
- The constant boom-boom-boom as tons of debris from the Trade Center was dumped into barges parked on the river right next to my office.
- The constant fly-bys of officials in helicopters buzzing my office building.
- The seemingly permanent closure of one lane of the West Side Highway for official use only
- And of course, watching the procession as they took the last beam from the Trade Center up the West Side Highway, which I watched from my office window.

God Bless the families and friends of those that died on that horrible day. And God Bless our military men and women, security personnel and first responders that are trying to make sure that a terrorist attack of a similar scale never happens again.