I left home late, to pick up a watch at the Post office (think it was a Limes) . I take a bus and a train that is elevated till after the Williamsburg bridge.

Had my walkman on listening to Imus when Charles got on to report a small plane hit WTC North.
Was before the Williamsburg bridge. The train was nearly empty since I was late. Everyone ran to the left side.

We were all looking at WTC1 when the east side of WTC2 exploded out from the river side impact. No phone, no camera.

The train runs from Delancy , under Broadway , under the Exchange to Downtown Brooklyn, Metrotech, where I worked.

Con Ed, Chase, SIAC (my place) , Verizon, MTA all have/had offices in Metrotech. We were all gathered in Polytechs courtyard. I watched both buildings collapse. (Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges nearly converge on the BKLN side). Then if anyone remembers the scene in TGTBATU where the Union soldier slaps the dust off his uniform to show the Blue color, you can imagine the color of the people walking across the Brooklyn bridge covered in soot/dust.

My boss asked me if I could get home. He lived just south of DT BKLN. I lived 9 miles away. 5 or 6 of use walked from work to the train/bus intersection (not a nice neighborhood to walk through). I got a bus part way home then walked the last 2 miles.

My DSL connection worked till Thursday then I was cut off.

My Dad was flying home from Florida with his lady friend. They got routed to Newark and stayed with her friend till they could get a rental home. Somehow he got to Manhattan to drop her home and left the car at Hertz at LaGuardia (where he worked)


This is the Globe that was in the Plaza of the WTC. It was moved to Battery Park. I don't know if it is still there.

Never forgotten

And when all was said and done, the US turned Afghanistan back over to the Taliban.

Grizz

Kinda like the JFK assassination; everyone recalls where they were when they heard the news.

All happened when my wife and I were in the air between Maracaibo and Port of Spain. Couldn't even process what I was being told when we landed. Incredibly sad. Killing Osama bin Laden was not near enough payback.

I agree!

I worked on the 102nd floor of 1WTC from 1984 to 88. Company moved the datacenter to NJ in 88 I changed jobs in 92.

Someone called me and told me to watch CNN!

Saw that horrendous atrocity going on.

Called brother Don in Boston, we were both so what the hell is wrong with humanity!

Sad part is most you people have no idea about it!

I remember EXACTLY where I was.

At the time, I was a pilot for American Airlines, flying the B-757 and 767 as they are common type ratings. I was on Day 2 of a 3 day domestic trip. We overnighted the first night in Austin. We ferried an empty 757 to DFW the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, loaded passengers, and pushed back to taxi for our next leg ... I don't remember the destination. When I call Ground Control for taxi instructions, we were told all planes are to return to the gate without further information.

Once the passengers disembarked, we walked into the terminal and saw the events unfolding on the airport televisions tuned to CNN. Down stairs in Operations, the mood was of extreme shock.

What my wife knew was her husband was an AA pilot, flying the same type of plane used in the attacks, and had overnighted in Austin, which sounds a lot like Boston, where one of the planes originated. You can imagine her relief when I called to tell her I was on the ground in DFW.

One of the guys I went through Navy flight school with was the son of Admiral Flagg. ADM Flagg perished on the plane that hit the pentagon.

I flew one of the first flights out of DFW after the grounding order was lifted days later. I remember getting on the bus at the employee parking lot and being struck by the strange and pronounced silence as there were no planes flying or taxiing yet.

The weirdest event associated with 9/11 that I experienced was on 9/16 when we flew in a small regional carrier aircraft from Port of Spain to Caracas. Two people refused to board the plane at check-in because of six men wearing clothes that clearly identified them as Middle Eastern - Muslim.

When the six men boarded the plane they were spread out into three different parts of the plane.) As the doors were being closed one woman demanded to disembark. The flight attendant tried to calm her, but she insisted that she wanted off. We had to wait until her luggage was located and removed, and she departed.

As soon as the plane began to roll, the Muslim men began to chant or pray out loud. My wife was sitting near one group in the mid-section of the small plane. I was sitting facing backwards in the front of the plane, by the lavatory. The chanting stopped as we leveled off.

As soon as the fasten-seat-belt sign turned off one of the Muslims got up and walked to the front of the plane to use the restroom. He came out and returned to his seat. I think that was the first time the rest of the passengers took a breath.

It was a sad and scary time. No one trusted anyone.

We deplaned in Caracas and I heard one woman say in Spanish, "Wholly shit, I thought we were all going to die."

Shortly after my son got out of the service in 04, he had to take a flight to wherever. He saw a seat with 3 Haji's in it, so he took the one right next to them; If it's gonna happen, it starts right here! I'm proud of him.

I was bowhunting elk in Colorado at the time and was scheduled to be in lower Manhatten for a meeting with clients the following week. Not much connectivity in those days. First thing we noticed is no contrails. Then heard the same rumor about a small plane hitting the WTC. I got curious since I had the trip to NYC the next week, so I drove down to the "trading post" and tried to make a "pay phone call" to my clients. Obviously couldn't reach anyone.

Guy at this little store didn't know anything, but said they were expecting a newspaper deliver in a half hour or so. I waited and was stunned.


Fortunately, I'd driven to Colorado, so I wasn't stuck. Obviously, I didn't make the trip to NY the next week, but was on the first flight from Houston to NY. I asked the flight attendant how many people were on the plane -- 15.