and was getting ready to teach so I turned the TV on at 6:15 to get the current weather and traffic and I saw both towers on fire. Like a zillion other people I thought it was a crappy action film so I changed channels and realized it was really happening. My boyfriend's mother was in NJ and didn't even know it happened until we called her from CA.

flicked on the TV on my way to the bathroom to pee and while I was doing that I was thinking why is Tom Brokaw on TV in the morning. Then I went to get a crown put on at the dentist. I drove back to LA that afternoon. No traffic, it was awesome. I was supposed to see Madonna's Drowned World tour at Staples that night but she postponed the concert until the following Saturday.

for work- saw the second plane hit the tower- the Today show people were totally confused about what was happening- I was yelling ‘terrorist attack’ at the TV.

As soon as it happened, we had a video feed in the control room, looking at it in real time. F-16s were scrambled to circle over the lab and the other numerous military installations in the area. They send in armed marines to lock down the facility. It was surreal. Meanwhile, my brother-in-law was in the building next to the one that collapsed. He evacuated, had to walk through dust and debris, and cross the bridge on foot. He survived, but to this day, he has overcome several cancers and is still battling one. Luckily, the 9/11 fund is paying for all of that medical care 100 % and they have top-notch monitoring. That's why they were able to nip most cancers in the bud as soon as they detected their emergence.

claiming after the collapse that the air was OK and you didn't need to wear a mask. The Bush admin pushed this lie as thousands of Ground Zero volunteers, etc worked for days in a toxic area. Jon Stewart was pissed off and tried to get the US govt to accept their responsibility in the deaths and current fatal illnesses as a direct result of working in that atmosphere. He worked to get Congress to give those dying victims' and their families the financial help they deserved for their 9/11 related diseases.

I thought 'uh, oh".

Thank goodness for the 9-11 fund. May he beat his latest cancer, and hopefully none will ever bother him again!
🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

Walking home afterwards, I stopped at the hospital to give blood and there was already a 4 hour line by 10:30 am. Sadly, not enough people ended up needing it.

I also remember the eerie silence overhead from all the planes in the New York airspace being grounded. We just had the sounds of helicopters from the local hospital going to pick up the injured.

and preparing for thousands of injured and just waiting and waiting and waiting while no one came breaks my heart.

Only 7 "bodies" were recovered. There were limbs, torsos, feet, etc all over the place but most of the dead were incinerated immediately. After all the digging and sifting through debris only about 43% of any victims have been identified via DNA.

Proud that so many showed up, but one of the bleakest ways to find out it wasn't needed.

So surrealistic.

Four days later (Saturday), I was in a car going across the George Washington Bridge. Literally, I mean literally, there were only two other cars with us.

would target the Bridge at that time.

when the plane hit it; will never forget it or my state of mind then.

Absolute chaos. Every person in my area rushed to fill up their tanks. The line of cars stretched for miles in both directions.

It was very hot out, so I took ice water to folks in line. The credit card machine went down, we had to do them manually.

Everyone was in shock and scared.

I was home, moving my car out of the garage to let the Kidney Fund truck in to pick up an old fridge we were donating. Out of habit, I turned on the car radio. Since it was very unusual to hear the president talking about terrorism on a rock station, I waddled into the house & told my husband to turn on the TV. We tuned in just in time to see the first plane hit Tower One. I can still feel how bone-chilling that was to this day.

People in the halls came in and watched the realtime news with us.

The next day one of my students in that class brought in photos of him & his dad being on top of that tower a few days earlier. They wanted to stay in NYC longer, but decided to get back in time for the school year.

canceling school that day !!

Since I taught 1st grade in CA I had to secretly watch the TV in my classroom with "mute" on but I was able to read the news at the bottom of the news screens and I had to block the TV screen inside a cabinet turned at an angle from the 6 year olds so I wouldn't alarm them. Shit!!!! It WAS alarming!!! To continue to teach was almost impossible. It really was the most difficult day of my entire teaching career!

We never found out the facts about why airspace was shut down nationwide and why the Saudi family was still allowed to fly across our borders that day. Rumors flew across media. And all cameras seemed to be trained on New York that day when it happened. That's something that in retrospect has always seemed suspicious to me.

The Bush family and The Carlyle Group. All that oligarch drama has ticked me off ever since.

about the Bush cover up and how he got Saudis out of the US ASAP. He was only interested in Big Oil $$$$$. What else is new?!?

Recently surfaced 9/11 evidence was not shared with FBI field agents or top intelligence officials - CBS News https://share.google/KJHbOd8LOI75QyqIt

FBI guy who quit over the CIA's continued failure to coordinate their intel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Soufan

https://www.soufangroup.com

Apparently, MSNBC had enough expertise to recognize his.

Maybe it's our military community. They didn't want a Kennedy traumatic repeat. My kids didn't know about it when I picked them up.

My kids didn't know about it.

Then a few months later, their school was under lock down because a local bank was robbed and workers were held hostage. I didn't know about the bank robbery. (Which was only a mile from my house) I go to pick them up and they were very animated. They were like, "Mom, how could you not know??"

The employees were held hostage for nine hours. But I wasn't listening to the local news that day, so I didn't know about it. Or if I was, I didn't catch the address. It's weird how that is.

or media. Texas? "Banning"? Of national news? Unless a media outlet's charter explicitly says it decides what news of national interest its consumers are allowed to see, that's unconstitutional.

Some classes originally had TV's on and one of the counselors ran in and said several students had an aunt on one of the planes. It was too traumatic for them to watch. Hubby could sense hysteria was spreading and he didn't know how many other students had relatives on the planes, so he ordered the TV's off in the classroom.

They didn't cancel school like they did when Kennedy was shot.

In 2001, many kids would have had to go home to an empty house since both parents were working. Many parents worked for the DOD here. We had five military bases at the time. Students could go home if a parent requested that they go home. School administrators huddled about how to respond. With a population over a million, that's alot of students and parents to worry about.


Of course, we could see everything on our TV's at home. My kids heard had heard about it, but the magnitude didn't "register".


When they got home, of course I was glued to the TV. I had an 8, 11 and 15 year old at the time. Since they didn't see it in real time, it took awhile for it register when they got home.

__________

Other towns in Texas, may have had their TV's on, but not my kid's district.

I got up to watch CNN. Just in time to see the second plane hit the second tower.

I was home. I had been seriously injured in an auto wreck, waiting to heal enough for more surgery. So I had a brother calling me from his work, and my co-workers calling from the clinic. It was a terrible day.

I had canceled a couple of days earlier a trip to NYC the night of September 10. I was to attend a meeting in the Windows on the World restaurant atop the WTC. About half the attendees had arrived before the first plane hit. None survived.

I was very lucky.

I was on going to the gym on and had a view of the whole thing. Remember walking uptown as the cloud of dust began to spread and the very distinctive and horrible smell.

I seem to recall that Washington Sq was the place where most people were told that they couldn't go further south. That's where NYU is.

It was super early. A group of people were standing at a corner and watched as it happened. Some people said it was a fire, while others that were there longer said they saw an explosion. Later, we saw the other plane hit. Then the first tower fell. Then the second tower fell. Then people started moving north.

I lived at Union Square.

After the attacks I was extremely angry on a personal level. Visually, the Twin Towers were New York. I still have my "I Love NY" bumper stickers on my art school portfolio. I put them up every 9/11 anniversary.

In April, 2002, I felt compelled to go to NYC and support the New Yorkers. I did go and it was very, very strange. The whole atmosphere was completely different. My cab driver to the airport told me that he was at ground zero and he was parked there when the 1st plane hit. The cab in front of him and a pedestrian walking next to his cab were crushed by plane debris. He got back into his cab and drove home ASAP through "body parts". Horrific!

of 14th St.

But I also have seen 14th street/Union Square which was just about 6 blocks north of Wash Sq.

I wonder how I would have reacted. Sometimes I think I'd be a total basket case but another part of me goes into autopilot and my brain goes into a rational mode. When I was a teacher that is what happens (you automatically act rationally). You forget yourself completely and you are focused on every second of the situation.

(see my other post)

Came into the city from Westchester on the 14th and walked everywhere. GCT to times square, down 7th Ave all the way to Canal. By the time I got to St. Vincent's (12th? st), traffic on 7th Ave was so light I crossed that funny angle at Greenwich St against the light with back to traffic. Could hear a pin drop - so a car coming would have been noticed (pre-electrics!). Up 4th / Park - Union Sq was just full of still bewildered persons and those looking for family / friends. Cut across to Lex by the Armory - again, a crowd there looking for survivors - holding pictures. Girl scouts passing out food and beverage to the crowd. Back up to GCT where the main hall was empty save the heavily armed troops. The only time I'd seen such firepower was at Heathrow, changing planes the week after the embassy bombings in 1998.

Such a weird vibe - as were the months that followed. Would drive into the city and park freely - even on Restaurant Row. Restaurants suffered tremendously, down 75% of revenue, generally from what I heard. Bars OTOH, tripled their revenue. I generally holed up in a place in Hells Kitchen, shooting darts and drinking till 3am. Somehow winning the heart of my future wife through all of that. 21 years married today (9/11/04 - no one seemed to want that date....). We took it back.

ETA: Ignore this, I just saw your post #57 👍

You came in from Westchester GCT, then walked down to below Canal St before the first plane hit?
or
You came into NYC on 9/14 and did all that walking? (🤔 second one sounds more plausible )

closed. Yeah, that smell.
It may have been the second time because closer in a way, wind direction etc.

For lunch, I and a few coworkers went to a nearby tavern to watch coverage on their tv. Strangely, I always think of the weather that day, it was near perfection.

Came thru security that morning and the guards were in security guard uniforms. Came back 2 days later and there were full on soldiers, body armor, fatigues, and long guns on their chests. Scary shit. And we were just logistics.

day not playing any music just letting callers call in and talk. Lin Brehmer and Terri Hemert. I listened to that off and on during the day while I was driving to my patients homes. I was a pediatric home health nurse doing infusions at the time. Every home had their tv on watching the suffering.

I honestly don't remember anything after my work day. I'm sure I went home and was glued to my tv.

I remember the weather forecast calling for "brilliant sunshine" and as
I recall there was barely a cloud in the sky across the entire country.
I went to work thinking what a beautiful day it was going to be. Boy,
was I wrong.

I was working with teen girls on a treatment unit and I went around and talked to some of them about the attacks. Of course nearly all of them were horrified about what we had all just witnessed on TV but one of them actually said "Oh I don't know. I think it's pretty cool."

It was in a building across the street from the Sears Tower. I was a
copier tech in the Chicago Loop; we all had pagers with LCD displays
that also gave news updates that I was checking from time to time
because, well meeting. Anyway, I get this message that a plane had
hit one of the World Trade towers so I figured it was just some idiot
in a Cessna. A few minutes later i get a message that the flight had
originated from Logan Intl. in Boston so now I thought this might be
be bad, but I was still thinking accident. I another got notification
that it looked to be intentional and at that point I interrupted the
meeting and told the group what was happening so we went to
another room that had a TV and turned it on just in time to see the
second plane hit. We were all stunned so our manager called the office
to ask what we should do. They put out a message for everybody to
go home. Metra, the commuter rail service stepped up and started
doing "load and goes" from the stations. I got home about noon and
watched the TV the rest of the day in utter disbelief.

I'm a life long NYC'r, artist, former graphic designer, occasional illustrator, jewelry set-up photo stylist, and bunch of years in various clerical, clerical+ jobs.

You mentioned the Towers, and the Washington Sq arch - so Parsons? NYU? Cooper Union? [all in that area for non-NYC'rs] I was at Cooper about 9 ish years earlier.
And please tell me a little about your illustration work. PM me if you want.

Now to the thread.

Working for a big financial firm. No access to TV just Howard Stern on radio who was broadcasting live that day. Told that the buildings collapsed but that just didn’t register. So we were all sent home and I finally saw on TV what occurred.

I still have them. I made my boyfriend tape his show while I had to go to school to teach.
The whole Stern broadcast is on YouTube and I've watched a few times.

I had him on my car radio and I remember when he announced that Tower 2 collapsed. I gasped and couldn't breathe for a moment.

... louder each time. After several people were looking at her, she said a plane had hit the WTC. News sites were clogged from the spike in traffic, so coming here to DU was actually a bit of a lifeline, a place where information could be relayed without being jammed up.

I actually live on the Jersey side of the Hudson, but that week had been house-sitting on Long Island while my parents were vacationing in upper Wyoming and Montana, because it cut my commute from ~2h to about 20 min. Which was fortunate, because it'd be about 3 days before I could get back across the Hudson.

Oddball fact: in a backward way, I made money off it: My landlord, a civil engineer for the Port Authority who worked out of the WTC, had been on vacation in the early part of the month, so had only deposited my rent check in an ATM in the WTC on the 10th. The ATM hadn't been emptied before the 11th, and was just considered a loss after the attack and fires. The bank honored the electronic record of my landlord's deposit, but since they never processed the check, the rent money was never deducted from my checking account. It took a few months for me to double-check with him and sort out what must have happened. I donated the "boon".

It turned out that one of the people lost was the son of one of the proofreaders in my department. He'd been installing equipment at the top of Tower 1 when it was hit by the first plane. He left behind a wife and little girl. My sister lost a friend she'd worked with several years previously. I can practically give a walking tour of various locations seen in ground-level videos taken at the time.

Were there tons of posts on that day?

And yes, there were a lot of posts that day, as people were checking in and sharing information because other sources were not handling the high volume of traffic well. DU may have been busy for DU, but not nearly as busy as commercial news sites.

Actually, I had pruned shrubs the day before and watched it all day because I heard about a plane when I had taken my youngest to school.

Or maybe I pruned shrubs before I took them to school? (But I doubt it)

Somehow the pruning shrubs factors into this because it fit in with the beautiful weather that was pretty much all over the country that day. Normally I don't that when it's normal Sept 11 weather around here.

I overslept, and was going to head into Manhattan. It was around a little before 10:30AM when I left. My roomate was still asleep. It's gorgeous day. Happy summer cloud in the sky.

I usually turned on my walkman while puttering around the apt, but didn't. Get outside turn it on, I'm at right angles Flatbush Ave, but 1 block east. I notice a police car stopped across the span of the street blocking another car from going onto Flatbush. Strange.

Now crossing westward, then northward parallel to Flatbush. I turn on the radio, several (?3) news people on..."firemen covered in ash." "It looks like a Science Fiction movie, but it isn't.". I have no idea of where they are talking about; but I think of one of those 10ish story but full block long red brick buildings in Queens. They're pretty massive for non tall residential buildings.

As I'm near to crossing the to the northside of the street parallel to Flatbush; they all fall silent. I've crossed, and begin to head west to Flatbush. Then one of them says, "The Towers are gone.". I spin around around, staring at my walkman held in hand as if it turned into a little squawking monster, bc possibly I'm unconsciously putting 2+2 together.

Then terribly, I slowly turn back to face north-ish west. Where the Towers would peek their top 5 or stories above the local low buildings depending just where you were. I look closer at that "summer cloud". It's not white, but a light gray beige. It's not "airy" either but more ?gritty. I realize I'm looking at the cloud of destruction.

See, back in 9/80 - 8/81 I spent afternoons on the 73rd floor (2 elevators!), in the NE corner office of South Tower 2. NYS Dept of Labor (they moved our waaay before), with some great work colleagues, and an amazing view! Spent years visiting the lower mezzanine for great shopping. Windows on the World, and their bar for drinks .

I clamp my hands over my mouth and run screaming back home. Through myself on my bed, cry hard into my pillow then stop. I'm too scared to go into the living room to watch TV, so I listen to WNYC & NPR radio all day, evening. My sister calls me early afternoon, and tells me about 2 near misses by her friends! I finally watch TV from midnight for several hours in a surreal daze.

When I go out the next day the cloud from the still burning fires is dark, and high above our neighborhood. Go to a neighborhood Net cafe to get intouch with a set of friends with shared interests. But no internet bc the cables were ?cut, or not functioning from Manhattan. Can't go into Manhattan either. Finally 3 days later I do get in and my friends were worried bc they thought I still worked in that area.

At Union Sq an amazing set of personal items, art etc builds up all around the south plaza area. Amazing, so poignant! It's the Northside of 14th St where anyone can go. I spend many visits there.

Then I noticed a crowd of people watching television in one of the conference rooms, so I found out a plane hit a tower.

I finished the day at work, went to my company golf league as usual. That was eerie, as the course is near an airport. It was very quiet, no big jets flying over.

Then, on the way home, I saw some gas stations with their prices doubled, and some with the prices unchanged. It was a mixed bag of price gouging.

My house is also near the airport, so the quiet was noticable.

Found out when we landed.

Was supposed to be there for 3 days. Was there for 2 1/2 weeks.

watching the TV with my Agents, and trying to figure out what we should be doing.

Could barely get the kids ready for school and out the door.

I had gotten up early after a night off because the stock market seemed poised for a rebound. I saw the second plane hit. I called my Mother and work called and they called all registered nurses to come in.

We were told to expect mass casualties, not necessarily from the Twin Towers, but more terrorist attacks were expected. We discharged every patient in the hospital who could possibly be discharged, all surgeries, appointments, and procedures were cancelled.
I recall not hearing about any patient or family being upset over being discharged.

It was my last day as a laboratory bench chemist/researcher and first day as a manager/supervisor.

I remember being in a hurry that morning and rushing out the door literally seconds before the first plane hit coverage began on TV. I rushed out with my daughter and dropped her off at daycare (a few minutes drive from my home) and went to work, listened to music on my radio on the way in and then went directly into my lab and began finishing off my required documentation for the final production lot I was releasing that day. After I dropped off my daughter I had no human contact again for a couple hours - the exact time things were unfolding.

Then we had my first managerial staff meeting scheduled for 11 AM CDT and I learned what had happened - one the other managers said "the towers are down" and I remember thinking to myself "what towers is he talking about?".

The rest of the day was an out of body experience. I called my wife and could not reach her for about 30 minutes. She had left her job and immediately went to pick up our daughter from daycare and had left the phone on her desk. I spoke to my mom and dad, my sister and my brother and then finally left and went home around 2 PM after I had finally gotten through to my wife. Between 11:30 AM CDT and 2 PM CDT the PC's and internet system at my lab and office were overwhelmed and essentially frozen. Once I knew that my family was accounted for, not flying that day and safe in our home, I had to get home and left work.

The rest of the day was just horror after horror and a numb shock of feeling it was unreal.

Commuting from White Plains to far northern Westchester for work - on the Bronx River Parkway, windows down, care-free, listening to Stern.

They cut from the hijinks to discuss the first plane to hit - everyone thinking it an errant cessna or some accident (too clear a day for that). Then the second plane hit as I was turning onto the Saw Mill Parkway. It was pretty obvious then that this was sinister. Did about 90 MPH to the office park and worked out the day, getting home at 11p.

Worked the next two days equally late then took Friday off.

Just remember trying to decompress that evening, sitting on the old couch, watching that giant old CRT TV - wasnt far removed from the 2000 election and doing the same then. What a mess.

I turned on the radio, and the first thing I heard was a scream. It took me a few seconds to discover that they were doing a live, on-the-scene report; there was screaming, confusion, panicked shouting, emergency sirens, and all the rest. I gradually got the picture on the drive to work, and was in a numbed daze by the time I got there.

The office saw almost no activity that day. I could barely register what was going on around me.

When I got home, Mrs. Aristus and I just watched the plane crash videos over and over, wondering what was going to happen next.

After the first plane hit the towers everyone thought it was some horrible accident. Then the second plane hit the other tower (live on tv) and everyone knew it was an attack. I started calling people.

...waiting to board a plane to Atlanta.
About 5 minutes before boarding call, they announced all flights were delayed, but no explanation.
Some guy said "Maybe it's because of that plane hitting the WTC." I had no idea.
We went to the magazine store and were watching the TV the lady had on. In less than a minute, we saw the second plane hit.
I knew immediately we weren't going anywhere that day, because thar was obviously intentional.
I picked up myself & headed for the door & the parking lot.
While I was walking out they announced the FAA was suspending all flights indefinitely.
Went back to the site where my office was & they were on total lockdown. Wouldn't let me in & I was a senior manager with the company for 22 years.
I just headed home and watched the coverage on TV.

Last edited Fri Sep 12, 2025, 03:40 AM - Edit history (1)

As someone in Art and Architecture College 70-74...where I sometimes hung out with the architect students as they were being built. Jokes about them being "the boxes" the real buildings came in.
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But then I worked there. I fell in love with them, bc I saw them in all kinds of weather, and the surfaces would reflect the different lighting conditions mid day, sunsets, sometimes glimpses of clouds in the windows. They could be bathed in fog, with glow from some of the windows beginning to fade completely as the fog got thicker higher up. This was later Fall/Winter leaving from work; dark by 5PM. In fact there were occasions when we couldn't see out our windows up there!

I spent many visits down by the site from Nov 01 onward as they took things apart, and then eventualy began building the new tower. These were my buildings, my work area. Now, I actually spent time from 1971 onward by City Hall bc of a fabulous record shop. CH was only ?4 blocks north, one Avenue east of WTC.

I took many photos of the process over the months+. I went to a service at St John the Divine soon after where I finally got to see my sister. We hugged deeply. In the gift shop there was a woman w a "Ohio 🩷 NY" T shirt. Many people out of the NY/NJ/CN area came to help with the clean up!

🚨 Graphic just this paragraph
In '16 I was on Switzerland visiting my aunt and uncle to make art w my aunt. It was during 9-11. There we x hours later afternoon looking back to here in the morning. Like I tended to do I look on line at 9-11 stuff that day. But totally forgetting that Europe didn't censor the photos like here in the USA. So a half smashed body! A street with gigantic blood splotches all the way the block! My uncle was the squeamish type sobI couldn't emote to him. And my dear aunt was suffering with Parkinson's so I wasn't going to burden her. Just had to deal w it. Luckily it was early in my 3 week stay, and soon forgotten in the amazing adventure I was on! //end of ick.
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Meanwhile, in the late '70s, or all early '80s my cousin George became a Fire Marshall.They go through all the training the fire fighters do. We were so proud. I ran into his brother a few days later who told me he was working on The Pile. What the FF's called the ruins. Woah.
Unfortunately, decades later cancer got him, like a lot of others down in the area who spent a lot of time there.

Lots of visits to the eventual beautiful memorial. The Survivor Tree is a callery pear that were the ones ringing the edge of The WTC Plaza in big planters. It was found, and taken to a big nursery to be tended to. It now blooms before the many oak saplings (then planted) begin to green up.

Later they made an additional small memorial within the big one of a boulder with strips of metal embeded into it to commemorate the fighter fighters, police, and ? who died later from illnesses contracted by the contaminated air they breathed in.

BMPM- They made 2 collection anthologies of 9-11 art created by comic book artists. I bought both. Got to the exhibit of the original B&W art, too.

Finally- The Trubute in Lights. One of the most memorable, beautiful things of that type (a memorial) ever created. The lights climbing onto the heavens. I could see them in the distant some years from my hilltop neighborhood in The Bronx.

But they were on (at night) for a whole 6 months that first year they were lit. I could see them rising above our low apartment, and brownstone buildings on our block in Brooklyn. So beautifully poignant.

And your descriptions are wonderful.

Having just completed a disaster recovery drill, was headed to a site visit for a customer in Northeast Washington, with a planned flight from National back to Atlanta.

Listening to a rock station which broke into WINS 1010 coverage out of NYC. The weather was too clear for me to believe an errant plane hit the north tower. I got to the customer site, but nearly everyone had left. Crested a hill and saw the smoke from the Pentagram. My cell phone was out of service, but used the office phone to call mom and let her know I was okay.

Obviously flying back to ATL was out, so I called my disaster recovery contact to find out where they wanted me - NY state or Washington. Ended going back to my hotel in Gaithersburg, where IBM was in full disaster recovery to clients mode. Ended up doing an actual recovery for a NYC client without documentation.

Stayed a few extra days in Maryland, got relieved by a co-worker, and drove back home.

He was only a couple miles from Ground Zero, and I was desperately trying to call him. Anyone who tried to call Manhattan can tell you that no calls were getting through because the cell towers were down. No landlines either.

Finally around 10:30 a.m. (or so) my son emailed me and told me he was OK and everyone was OK around the Village Voice office. He told me to take a look at the Voice's website where he had just posted the first photos of the WTC Towers coming down. On that day, the Voice (a tiny weekly paper) scooped the NYT, the WSJ and every other news organization in the country. They posted the first photos of the disaster, from ground level.

Every class had a tv with access to programming.

The special ed teacher came into my chemistry class and said you have to see what's on CNN. And we saw the second plane go into the tower.

I knew my brother walked by the towers on his way to.work every morning so I was terrified for him. Luckily, he voted in Brooklyn that morning and was still on the way to work when every thing happened. He had a long walk back to home.

He list so many friends that say.

My sister was flying and was stranded by the events of the day.

Scary, scary day.

Terrible he lost so many friends

Then the second plane hit.
---------------

A friend of mine said her son was going there to speak for the World Food Bank but had not got there yet.

He said he was running down the street as the dust cloud was chasing him.

I taught 1st grade in CA and it was awful. I am still mad that I had to teach and remain calm when I knew what was happening. Worst day of teaching ever! They should have canceled school.

Insane, craziest day in DC until 1/6

But then the rumors of car bombs going off on by the mall and state department coupled with the “loss” of other planes heading to DC were reported on WTOP. That led to panic in the city.

The rumor mill kicked into high gear. Car bombs, active shooters, none were actually happening but that did not stop the rumors

Last edited Fri Sep 12, 2025, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Rumor mayhem! Not so unusual considering the circumstances.

Following a week of preparation, we would have flown on Friday. Our mission was cancelled upon confirmation of a 3rd plane, which hit the Pentagon. With all air traffic grounded, my deployment partners ended up driving about 400 miles back to their base in a rental car.

Non-emergency personnel were evacuated and remained home until 9/14. Without a staggered release, it took hours to clear the parking lots. My duties pivoted immediately to supporting US Central Command planning. Organizations remaining on duty implemented day and night shifts, putting up blackout curtains to mask which parts of our buildings were occupied. My office didn't have to since our basement location had no windows.

Since I was going to be out of the area, my wife and our 2 young kids had been packing to fly to the Midwest and spend time with her parents. They stayed home.

Home of the B2 Stealth Bomber and former home of several Minuteman missiles, though most around here don't believe every single one is gone.
It was messy and traumatic and I still don't really talk about it.

I've seen so many videos of people who were traumatized and still don't talk about what they experienced with friends and family. Many have PTSD and "survivor's guilt".

Cars everywhere searched, nonstop ticker printing every law enforcement update from the FBI, statements from Interpol,etc. Talk of deploying the Stealth, worries about nuclear strikes, talk of landing Air Force One on base if needed.
I had a 1 year old at home and I wasn't sure if I was going to see her again.

from ATC, FAA and NORAD from 9/11 and I am so impressed with everyone trying to do their best to figure out what the hell was going on. And you have to remember there was no GPS or smart phones back then. Sometimes the people watching the news on TV that day knew more than the officials at the agencies. On one call the ATC said, "We have the TV on in here when we are working and the World Trade Center is on fire and since you said one of the missing planes was in this area if this could be one of the planes?".

When they sent jets up to shoot down the planes I realized those pilots weren't able to get missiles onto their jets since they were in a hurry. The pilots knew they were going to have to use their jets as missiles, one hitting the nose, the other the tail and the pilots were prepared to die. Wow!

I can't remember if I actually saw it much closer to it's release, or this was my first view.

I have a vauge memory of seeing live footage by someone from that day, but was not from the major networks, and I didn't have Cable. Maybe I saw snippets of this film. I checked and there was no other film footage of this type. A mystery!
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Seeing the fire fighters chiefs staging in the WTC 1 Lobby -l that's the longest I've had a look at that lobby than since I was actually there so many times. Wow.
And I'd forgotten about the bucket brigade bc I followed the TV all about the work down there; rescue, recovery, and removal all those days, and months.

a friend and coworker/teacher before she retired in 2002. It's the only thing in my life that I borrowed and never returned. Books, records, clothes were never borrowed by me but I knew this film was important. Since I went to art school in NYC this terrible attack hit me hard.

I don't know where she recorded if from but it's on a VHS tape and I still have it. I never saw it again anywhere until about 15 years ago and it was only a shorter version of this film and was on TV
I must have watched it a dozen times, each time I still cry. I became a teacher and 9/11 was the worst day of my teaching career. They should have canceled school. I was in NO condition to teach 1st graders that day.

There is are follow up films about the firefighters in this film and what they are doing over 20 years later. They follow up every 5 years or so. Tony, the new guy, is now working to help keep firefighters safe from chemicals and crap that has killed so many since 9/11 from cancer and other illnesses directly related to the collapse.

https://share.google/xhjSLxikYoUb3GW1I

From what you said I might have seen the shortened version on tv! The timing sounds about right.

As a life long NYC'r and who one spent a year on the 73rd flr of South Tower 2 I appreciate the empathy you have/d for us.

You're absolutely right on having to have stayed in your classroom, and especially having to hide your angst from little kids. If had been HS'rs... You should have been sent home.

🤔 Particularly in the '80s NYC was demeaned by a fair amount of "the heartland". I remember that. So it was almost startling to get so much love from around the whole country!

I bought those 9-11 comic artists books. The various documentary magazines. A wonderful book on the building of, the day to day activities of, and a bit of the area around The Towers. That was like my equivalent of you rewatching the film.

Oh, and there was an open call for art pieces, maybe photos and with text if you wanted by a gallery in lower Manhattan re 9-11. It was exhibited in earlyish 2002. I did a piece for it .

My sis and I for years went down on 9-11 to see items, memorial signs, flowers etc that people put by the chain link fence.

I definitely got teary-eyed in a few spots watching it. It still edifying to watch.
I'll definitely check out the follow up.

You know the one I mean (with the red heart). One was on my art school portfolio from 1980 and the other I got in 2002 when I visited the city in support of New Yorkers. I always put them up on 9/11.

Every time a see a TV show or old film I notice the Twin Towers. It's sort of a reference point as far as estimating the date/year.

Ah, yeah, The Towers as time markers

No Towers pre-1974 ish. Towers 1974ish to 2001. One World Trade 2003ish onward.

We had just dug up the gas main, had the Howard Stern show on the truck radio. They were talking about the plane hitting the first tower, assumed it was an accident. After the second tower was hit, it was evident it was no accident. It was time for a break anyway, we needed to find a tv. We barricaded our excavation, found a tv on at Burger King. I will never forget that day.

Watching coverage on TV made me late for work.

At that time, my office was on Broadway at 59th Street. I was at a business breakfast when then first plane hit. When I returned to my office, a number of us went to the roof from where we saw the second building fall.

To this day, I’m still furiously angry.

When I watch videos of that day and the reactions from New Yorkers I see and hear pure anger and hatred, for a good reason!!!!! They knew right away it was NOT an accident, who the terrorists probably were, the people on the top floors wouldn't be able to be rescued, the structure of the buildings were in jeopardy, etc.

I have listened to Howard Stern's live show from that day in NYC and they were EXTREMELY angry. They wanted to go to war immediately.

I want to honor Ed Felt, a worthy soul who died 9/11/01: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220636788

A follow up:
A few months before 9/11 I played "tour guide" with some visiting friends. When we did the WTC tour, I was just as much a "tourist" as my friends. In the years I lived in NJ, I had never really given the WTC complex much thought.

It was really quite mind-blowing. Almost an entire city within the city, with more than 200,000 working at or doing business at the complex each day. Those memories were fresh in my mind when I heard the news of the first plane hitting the North Tower on my car radio as I arrived at work in Liberty Corner, NJ. All I could think was "The people. All those people. OMG."

At work, everyone was gathered around a TV someone had set up and we witnessed the second plane hit. And then the news of the hijacking of flight 93. And then confirmation that Ed had booked a last minute flight on that plane. And then the pentagon news. It all unfolded so, so fast. The order of events at the office is sort of a blur.

One of our little group of tech writers lived less than five minutes away. Her husband was still at home and called her and a little group of us headed over there with her.

We were glued to the TV as her husband filled us in on what had been reported in the few minutes before we got there. And then the shock of that first tower collapse while sitting in that living room. My mind was in this tape loop "The people. All those people..." as the horror and my image of the numbers lost expanded exponentially with the collapse.

As that horror sort of sank in we were just sort of trying to process it -- it seemed like all of us were acquainted with someone who worked or frequently did business at the WTC.

And then the news of the crash of flight 93. There were vague hopes that maybe Ed had missed the flight, but I think we knew if he had we would have heard by then. That period between the collapse of the first and second building is vague too.

But the shock of the collapse of the second building is as burned in my mind as the shock of seeing the first. And the tape loop in my head continued. "OMG. Ed. OMG. All those people. The people...."

were incredible. Each one was unique. Some called to say, "Good Bye, I love you". Others called to give information to family and friends to relate back to the govt/FBI what was going on inside of the planes. Some were crying, others were calm. The recordings of the passengers' calls are absolutely terrible.