I was on the uptown 6 train (NYC Subway) when the first plane hit. I caught the train at City Hall after going through the WTC PATH station & shopping concourse and out 5 WTC.
I was on the computer (but not the internet) at home doing some work. TV wasn’t on. I then left for work–another 30 minutes w/no radio in the car. Around 8-ish PST I stopped by the local deli to pick up a couple of provisions and saw some of the news on TV but it really didn’t quite register what I was seeing. It was only when I got on the internet at work that I really realized what had happened–and by then, of course, it was all over.
I was living in North Carolina at the time. My wife was supposed to fly to Europe for an academic conference that afternoon. She actually had been booked to travel the day before but Midway cancelled her connector flight to New York due to bad weather.
My wife left to run some last-minute errands while I went to the Y to swim a few laps before work. I was listening to NPR and as I pulled into the parking lot they had a brief report of a plane hitting one of the towers. The way they described it sounded like a little prop plane – a freak accident, nothing more.
When I got back in the car 45 minutes later both planes had hit and they knew it was a terrorist attack. I drove home and called my wife on her cell phone and told her what was going on. I turned on the TV just in time to see the first tower collapse.
My wife’s flight was cancelled of course. It was weeks before she unpacked her bags.
I was at my desk at work and my Brother who works in Manhattan very close to where the towers stood, sent me an Email from his Blackberry at 9:09 AM saying “Tell Mom I am OK. Phones out. Heading home”.
Later my messages to his Blackberry would tell some of the panicked New Yorkers, covered in WTC dust, who were walking out of Manhattan in the vicinity of my brother that there had not in fact been a bomb at Times Square, that there were no reports of bombs in the subway, that the bridges were shut to cars, that the pentagon had been attacked etc. (mitigation against what is coming)
But my immediate reaction was to make fun of my brother and “New Yorkers” for panicking and basically call them a bunch of overreacting muttonheads who flipped because their mundane commute had encountered a bump in the road. Since 8:48 CNN had been talking about the first tower and I had been watching… but I had gone back to work minutes before the 2nd plane hit and I missed that and that reflected my response to my brother (they weren’t sure it wasn’t it private plane, and I imagined a small private Cessna). There is a second e-mail exchange between us – basically he relates it is a terrorist attack. And I rolleyes and basically say “sure, sure a terrorist has flown a plane into the WTC.” Well it wasn’t long (before 9:26) before he related seeing people jumping out of buildings. I turned back on the news and got serious/realized
I stay vague – a) to not look like a total A-hole- and b) because my Mom donated our correspondence to a Project to memorialize 9-11 where people recorded their emails, calls, memories of it – this was like late October 2001. I initially reveal myself as a total a$$-- and will apparently do so for future generations. Hooray for me! I was. I just didn’t “get it” until after I had sent those two initial emails.
Same place I was this morning: the dentist.
Umm, make that 6th Ave train, not #6 train :o …the F to be precise.
I was in my car driving to work. I was running very late that day and frantically trying to make time in traffic. I vaguely heard the NPR newscasters say that a plane had hit one of the world trade center buildings. I didn’t pay much attention. Like others, I figured it was a small plane, and I was too busy concentrating on trying to beat traffic.
Then I heard (just as I was pulling into the parking garage) that a second plane had hit. That got my attention. I remember the announcer saying that they didn’t know if it was terrorism or the guidance system gone horribly wrong. I recall thinking “just how wrong can a guidance system go that you can’t see a building right in front of you?” For some reason, I still thought it was small planes, so I didn’t get too worked up about it.
While in the office, I mentioned what I’d heard to some coworkers who just kind of shrugged since they hadn’t heard anything. None of us seemed to think it was any big deal. Most of us just figured they were small planes and that the fire wouldn’t be too big a problem.
Then we got a broadcast email asking employees to stop going to news sites for information on the trade centers. It was overwhelming the firewall. That’s when we figured something must be up. A short while later, we got another email stating that TVs had been set up in several conference rooms and listing which ones. Around that time, people starting talking about it in the office, and that’s when most of us learned that these were big planes and that the fires were serious.
I went into one of the conference rooms just before the first building fell. None of us could believe it was coming down. Sure, we knew there was a bad fire, but terrible things like that just didn’t happen in our experience. Bad fires get put out. Buildings stayed up through fires. People got out. Only in movies did really bad stuff happen.
I got depressed and went back to work. Rumors were flying around about the Pentagon being destroyed, the white house being hit, all kinds of stuff.
Later I came into the conference room and asked about the second building. I was stunned that the second tower had collapsed. Even after seeing the first one fall, my mind still couldn’t grasp that this was really happening.
While watching TV, most of us were saying “everyone got out didn’t they? of course they got out–they have evacuation systems–they must have had time to get out.” We were all certain most people had been evacuated before the towers fell. Even though we were watching it and should have known they didn’t have time, we just couldn’t believe the worst had happened. It took several hours and most of the day for us to comprehend how awful it truly was.
I remember driving home that evening. Even in the nastiest stretch of interstate (where driving is usually a competitive, full contact sport), everyone was polite and considerate. People were letting others merge, signalling, waving people in front of them. It’s like we were all too numb to engage in any more nastiness.
Slow dentist.
I had gotten up very early in the morning to go to school. I had turned on the tv. I thought it odd that there was little talking. They were focused on a building with a huge billow of smoke in New York. “It must be a major fire to be on all the channels,” I said to myself as I showered. 
When I got out of the bathroom, they were showing that fire was still on and I saw that it was the WTC, then all of a sudden I saw the tower collapse.
WTF!!! :eek:
It was only on further reflection later on that I realized I had earlier only seen the beginning of that loop and not it’s conclusion. This had all happened hours ago while I was asleep. No had been saying anything during the playback because all the news anchors were still in shock!!
I was sleeping, curled up warmly in my townhouse bed in Buffalo, New York. My roommate, Derek (lives in the Bronx, also an evil Yankee fan) knocks on the door to the room (which I shared with Tim) and says “Hey guys, wake up. A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.” I repsonded with “Man, shut the fuck up.” I waited a second and Derek never left. Tim and I promptly hopped up and walked into the main room, where Nick (the fourth roommate) was sitting there watching CNN. So I’m standing there, half naked, watching the first fire spring forth from the structure. I look at it for about 20 seconds and say “Where’s the next one coming down?” They all look at me funny. “It’s Lower Manhattan. That’s a freaking island. Someone who would be crashing wouldn’t hit the Trade Center. Compared to the rest of the buildings on the island, not to matter the water, the chances of a plane accidentally hitting that building is minute. So, when is the next one going to hit?” Right after I finished that sentence, the next one hit. My roommates stared at me for a second. I said “Well, now that we know it’s not a mistake, how many other planes are up in the air? What are the next targets? When’s the White House going to get hit?”
Derek started frantically dialing his parents’ cell phone numbers. “All circuits are busy”. His parents had no business in Lower Manhattan, especially at that time, but he had to make sure. He must have called a hundred times before he went online and got in touch with his sister, who related that the parents were just fine.
I had golf team tryouts that day. I was in a bit of a haze, much like the rest of humanity, and ended up not going. The rest of the day was off, because anyone who was from the city was 8 hours away from home. 'Twas a different atmoshpere in New York, that’s for sure.
I won’t even begin to relate what I heard was going on back home in Detroit/Dearborn Michigan.
I was sleeping at my parents’ house. Normally I don’t sleep that late, but I’d just found out the previous day that I’d failed the Bar Exam by a measly four points. So I was unemployed and depressed. Dad was already at work that morning, but mom and my sibs were still asleep.
The phone rang sometime after 10 a.m. I grabbed the phone from my nightstand and heard my dad on the other end of the line.
“Are you watching TV?” he asked.
I was still bleary-eyed and incoherent. “No, I just woke up.”
“Turn on the TV.”
(groan) “What channel?”
“Any channel. It doesn’t matter. We’re under attack. Two planes have hit the World Trade Center. One of the towers is gone. Another plane hit the Pentagon.”
At that point I snapped out of my fog and turned on the TV. Smoke and flames were coming from what was left of the WTC. I banged on the door of my brother’s room, then went to wake up my mom. She was in shock – I don’t think she believed me until she turned on the TV and saw it for herself. My brother came to my bedroom door and watched the news coverage for a minute, then ran out to the garage. He came back in a few minutes later, telling me he’d put out our flag. I still remember him looking away, almost crying, when the second tower fell.
I was in second-period trig. My teacher got a phone call and turned the TV on just in time to see the second plane hit.
I was getting ready for work. As I was getting ready, I had the ever-educational Judge Joe Brown on, on the Fox station that I get out of Boston on cable. A few minutes into the show, they interrupted to announce that the first collision. It followed with the second, and George W. Bush with his initial response. As I was driving to work, as I listened to the radio, they announced the first collapse. At work, I was first checking websites for news, as was everyone else. Someone then remembered a television on site that is used to show videos, etc.
We tracked it down, and watched CBC for some period of time during the morning. I remember a hushed room as mass confusion was reported. Were there any survivors? How many lives were lost? How many planes were hijacked? Where were they? Were they heading for the White House? What was going on in Washington? Were was George Bush? The questions and speculation were endless. I recall mention at one point of the potential hijacking of a plane over Colorado.
Then as the US airspace was closed and the mass diversions of international flights to Canada started to be reported there was the added Canadian focus about what that might mean. I recall wondering why the Prime Minister was not out speaking.
I was working for the APS shelter, with wildlife. It’s an early start day, so we heard it early, then turned on the TV, and had it running during morning duties. The critters won’t wait , so it was a balance of absolutely not stopping, with gaping at the TV coverage in minutes of passby.
That morning, our veterinarian was doing surgery on the biggest goat I’ve ever seen, to try to remove a tumor. He’s a fine surgeon, and very compassionate, trying to save the goat gratis. I remember checking on the surgery, watching the towers go down, and seeing the goat’s freaking huge tumor being lifted out at the same time. Disposing of that for analysis…Blood and Guts, and Incredible Horror of Must be Blood and Guts on the TV. Our vet was totally focused on his surgery, and asking for info on the attack, but never left his charge. The goat did not make it, it was a massive tumor.
Such odd strong, aching images now welded into mind.
I’m in the Central Time zone and was already at work. I am a baker and started work no later that 5:45 AM. Just before 8:00AM our cafe’s kitchen manager arrived at work and said he’d heard on his car radion that a plane had hit the WTC. Bernard could say anything with a straight face and make you believe him, so I chastized him for making such a sick joke this time around. He protested he wasn’t lying.
Our cafe is inside the public library, and there were TVs in the periodicals section, with hush hoods for listening. A couple of us dashed in there to find the hooks had bee switched off . Probably the only time that you could hear them all over. I didn’t actually see the second plane hit, but saw a replay very soon
I was about to leave for work. I saw the tv, and thought, Oh, an accident. Then, at work, i got online and it was being written about. So we went into the lounge and watched the tv. It was so fascinating and stunning, it took me to 3 p.m. to feel sad, when it really hit me.
I was at Womack Army Medical Center at Ft Bragg. I was scheduled for a physical examiniation for airborne school. (I was trying to qualify to learn to jump out of airplanes while in flight.) The Today show was on in the waiting room. My friend Ryder was undergoing an ETS physical. (He was getting out and th Army had to make sure he was healthy enough to do so.)
When the first plane hit, I thought it was a movie; I wanted to believe it was an accident (drunken pilot or something). When the second hit, I was still waiting to see the doctor. I knew, somehow I knew it was an attack. I stood impotent, a defender to the nation, but unable to do anything.
After my visit with the doc, I went to my car and heard that the Pentagon had been hit. I heard that an unaccounted for plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. G Gordon Liddy was describing the reports on my car radio. I called into work to find out what to do. I was told to get my protective mask and to report in as soon as possible.
It was at that time, during that five mile drive home I realized that we were at war.
I pull that memory out sometimes. I hate to think about the days after and the casualties. I hate to think that this could happen in America.
I wanted so badly to kill those who had f***ed up my life and my world, but that was not to be for three more years. I never even got close until the 3 year anniversery.
I hope there will be peace in the time I have left n my career. I care too much for the children I am responsible for.
SGT Schwartz
I was one of the LAST people in the continental United States to learn about the attacks. I was living on the West Coast and working a second-shift job; I never woke up earlier than 11 a.m., so figuring in the time difference, it had been well over five hours since the first plane hit by the time I was aware.
Most of you seem to have been in some daily routine, which is to be expected of course. I was really out of place; one day out of port on a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska. Turned on CNN the first morning while my then-wife and I were getting showered and dressed and there it was.
It was a really odd experience; almost everyone else on the cruise was American, of course, and there was a strange mixture of subdual and unreality about the ship. It went on the full 5 day cruise, of course - what else could it do? Had we been leaving one day later we’d never have left; any earlier and we would have arrived in Anchorage before planes were allowed back in the air and so every hotel room was full. So we were a little lucky in our timing.
Oh, another odd thing on the voyage: a passenger had some sort of illness or injury and had to be airlifted off the ship by Coastguard copter (US, I think it was, not Canadian) that first full day out. Must have been the only thing flying on the West coast apart from Air Force.
When we got in they were practically giving away cabins on the return cruise (which was going all the way back to the Carribean, being the end of the Alaska season) but we couldn’t take the time. In Anchorage not a plane was flying - even the seaplanes were “grounded” (laked?) and all day two fighters circled overhead, around and around and around (our hotel wasn’t too far from the nearest Air Force base I guess).
We had 2 or 3 nights booked in Anchorage anyway so by the time that finished planes were flying again and we got home on schedule. Strange strange times.
Not quite the only thing. My brother (who is on the boards under the name of Fish) received a multiple organ transplant that day. The organs were flown from Alaska here to Seattle, a civilian plane under military escort. If he reads this thread, he can fill in the details.