9/11

"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01) 09/11/2015 at 13:10 • Filed to: None

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I thought I should put up the entire experience:

It was a crisp, cool morning, not a cloud in the sky. I was late for my job on Third Avenue, so I hailed a taxi on the Upper West Side. As soon as I got in, the driver told me a plane had hit one of the towers. I figured it was a small plane - more than once an idiot in a Cessna had flown between the towers.

Then the second plane hit. The driver and I speculated as to whether it was terrorism or a horrible coincidence. He told me he was Afghani.

When I got to work, everyone was trying to stream the news on their computer. I called my mom to tell her I was OK - to this day she has no concept of how the island is laid out.

I went into a conference room to see what was going on. Someone told me a tower had collapsed. The strangest thing for me that day was looking out the window and seeing only one tower still standing. There should have been two. There always were two.

A woman was quietly weeping, sitting at a conference table, and a partner was trying to comfort her. It turned out her husband was in the tower that was still standing. We found out later that he made it out.

We all gathered around a few small TVs the firm had wheeled in and just watched. There were helicopter shots of the site, the smoke, the people streaming across the bridges, as the subways were out. At that time, there was a 9 train - after that day, there was no more 9 train.

Throughout the day, both the internet and cell service were spotty. A few of us tried to work (we were hourly at that point). Ultimately no one billed much. It was difficult not to look out the window, not to look at the TV.

When the sun started to set, we all started to walk home. I went through Central Park. The wind blew north, and there was a metallic smell. And there was something else. A few dozen people were gathered at the Imagine Circle as I passed. A truck banged over a metal plate, and all of us jumped.

$kaycog > Steve in Manhattan 09/11/2015 at 13:17

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Wow. Thanks for sharing your story. I have goosebumps.

EL_ULY > Steve in Manhattan 09/11/2015 at 13:20

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oh man. That is heavy. I bet seeing the 1 lone tower was a very sad feeling

Mathias Rios > Steve in Manhattan 09/11/2015 at 13:27

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I got chills. Thank you for sharing

Steve in Manhattan > $kaycog 09/11/2015 at 13:30

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A couple nights later a few of us went to Modell’s, a sporting goods store, and bought all the white socks on display. Radio personalities (in my case, Opie and Anthony) had been encouraging their listeners to get supplies for the people working on the pile. They needed fresh socks, bottled water, facemasks, and more. There were several drop points around the city - in our case, the Hard Rock on 57th Avenue.

Steve in Manhattan > EL_ULY 09/11/2015 at 13:34

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It was more disconcerting, because no one realized the extent of what had happened yet. They were like the Statue of Liberty - always in the same place, and always visible from certain spots - the towers even more so.

$kaycog > Steve in Manhattan 09/11/2015 at 13:37

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Oh gosh. I really can’t imagine what it was like.

T5Killer > Steve in Manhattan 09/11/2015 at 13:47

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I could only imagine being in NYC for that. A good Army friend of mine was in the NYC NG (69th INF) during 9/11 and his stories and pictures of 9/11 are chilling beyond words.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Steve in Manhattan > $kaycog 09/11/2015 at 14:10

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In the ensuing days, the city changed a lot. There were soldiers everywhere, the mailboxes in midtown were welded shut, and there was a constant stream of trucks with heavy equipment headed downtown. Some mom and pop stores were closed because the workers could not get into the city. Trucks going through tunnels or over bridges were searched.

People who lived near the towers were not allowed back into their apartments - they had to be cleaned. Buildings that you could previously just walk into installed turnstiles, hire security. I remember being in Maryland shortly afterward and being astonished when I could just walk into an office building and board the elevator. Some downtown businesses closed and never reopened - they couldn’t earn money.

Steve in Manhattan > T5Killer 09/11/2015 at 14:15

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Even to this day you’ll sometimes see soldiers in the subway, fully armed. Prior to 9/11 that just didn’t happen.

$kaycog > Steve in Manhattan 09/11/2015 at 14:36

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Things were changed forever and not in a good way.