So where were you - When you heard about wtc bombings?

[Doc]

I don't think the one year anniversary will be so bad for me. The worst part about it would just be that I'd start thinking about all this crap all over again. I can deal with that.

The anger has subsided a lot for me. I used to get pissed every time I took the Pulaski to the Holland Tunnel. When you drive out from under that covered roadway, it used to be the first thing you saw were the towers. If it was early evening and the sun was setting, all the windows reflected this brilliant orange-red light. It was and still is my favorite thing about the skyline. Seeing these two huge glass structures that just dominated everything. Now I have trouble remember just how big they were. I guess it just gets less painful over time.

[kindred]

I was getting ready for work, just out of the shower and had our local news on. They reported a plane hitting the building, a small prop plane. Then they switched over live to the Today show and I saw the second plane hit. It was surreal. Even though we're 3000+ miles away, we were still effected since the planes were coming here.

I was never able to see the twin towers. I will never see them. I will never know how impressive and massive they were. Last week, I saw the NY skyline for the first time...and even I could tell where the hole is from where they once stood.

[SYNTuesday]

I meant to say that you shouldn't feel bad for someone who was closer to it

Really? Even if you were caught in a panicking tight crowd trying to get away? Had to pull your shirt over your face because of a smoke cloud rolling over you as the first tower falls? Proceeded to inhale rancid air for a month?

No, I'm not a victim, I don't want your sympathy. But the experience in Michigan wasnt the same. (EDIT: That's not to say it was worse or better. Different.)

As for the topic question, the first one hit in the 20 seconds between I got to the front door of school and got up to Math on the 4th floor. When I got there, everyone was at the window. I won't go into the rest of the story. It was a bad day.



Edited By SYNTuesday on Aug. 01 2002 at 12:36

[Jack]

I think we're agreeing on the same thing...just in a screwy way. I meant to say that you shouldn't feel bad for someone who was closer to it. It fucked all of up the same, whether you were on Church street or in Michigan

:lookatme: I'm from Michigan. I'll tell you, first thing that happened is I convinced our General Manager to close our store and send the employees home. The main two reasons behind that is that a lot of us have friends/family that worked in those buildings and the fact that we are about a mile from an International Airport (Gerald R Ford International). A few of us hung around and glued ourselves to the T.V. watching in horror as things came about. It is a day that will live in my memory forever and definately changed me. It made me realize that life was way too short and that any one of can go at any time.

I was lucky enough to not lose anyone, unfortunately I cannot say the same for one of my friends as he lost his older brother in Tower 2.

[Keyser Soze]

I used to get pissed every time I took the Pulaski to the Holland Tunnel. When you drive out from under that covered roadway, it used to be the first thing you saw were the towers. If it was early evening and the sun was setting, all the windows reflected this brilliant orange-red light. It was and still is my favorite thing about the skyline. Seeing these two huge glass structures that just dominated everything.

I totally am with you on that. That was one of my favorite views of the skyline. Its odd to now look at the pictures of the plans for the rebuilding of the area and what different possibilities for a new skyline will be.

As odd as it seems, I don't think I ever though of the possibility of ever losing those two tremendous towers.

[Sloatsburgh]

I was in my apartment. My wife and I were getting ready to go to the Finger Lakes for a couple of days then to Buffalo for a fraternity reunion. My wife called me from the dry cleaners so I turned on CNN. That was around 9:15 or so. The trip was somber. All I could think about was one of my pledge brothers who had just changed from being NYPD to FDNY three months ago. We finally heard word from him on Thursday. It ended up that he was in the Marriot when the first building went down. He wrote this spooky recap which National got a hold of and ended up making him the cover story in July of the fraternity's national publication.

The firm returned to WFC about 3-4 months ago. The sight is a creepy archilogical dig and I am getting more and more intolerant of people down here. Yesterday I came a half inch of screaming "Get the fuck out of here, you fucking gawkers. This is not a tourists attraction. I don't see fucking lemonaide stands at Austwich [sic.]."

[HedCold]

i just woke up at college and i looked on oa.com and saw the thread. i asked my roommate about it and he said he thought my other friend was making it up. i was just sitting there amazed by the two of them like 'wtf, put the tv on'. after that they finally realized what was going on [this was around like 9 am i think]. then in my dorm building there was this one spot where you were able to look and see the towers [i was in newark] and it was just creepy to see. since my tv reception sucked because we only had an antena, i went into this other kids room and watched it on his tv. after i heard the towers fell i ran back to the window to see, and they were just gone.

i was calling home since i knew my sister worked in the city to see if she was ok, and then later on i got a call from my best friend at the time saying she thinks her dad might be dead, so i stayed on the phone and talked to her for a while.

the next day i got a call from her at like 9 am saying she still hasn't heard from her father and she said "i think i watched my father die" and she was all crying. i still get goosebumps thinking about that. but, luckily for her, they found him later that day.

[HedCold]

As odd as it seems, I don't think I ever though of the possibility of ever losing those two tremendous towers.

since to go into the city i have to take the si ferry, i do remember one time thinking "i really should take a picture of this, its so cool" but also thinking "eh, its not like they're going anywhere." the thought of a plane hitting it came to mind, but i thought i was just overthinking it like i do with alot of things.

[Goatweed]

I was on the SI ferry that morning, on my way to work. As per the usual, I had my cd player/headphones on, reading the paper. After a few minutes, I saw people run to the left side of the boat. Mind you, I can't hear a thing, so I'm thinking "some asshole went and jumped overboard - now I'm gonna be late for work". Anyway, after 2 mins and the boat not stopping, I deicde to walk over and see whats attracting everyone's attention - and I look up to see the fire pouring out of the tower. By this time, only the first tower had been hit. Not 2 minutes later, the second plane flew overhead - and low - and proceeded to hit the second tower. If you remember or ever see the footage of the 2nd plane hitting the tower with the water behind the angle, and a ferry in the lower right hand corner - that's where I was.

Initially, my eyes were in denial. It didn't register at all. But once the boat turned around and hauled ass back to SI it started to sink in. What I kept thinking (then) was "why didn't we turn around sooner? were they seriously going to dock?".

Once I got back on the island we were herded like cattle onto the trains and buses (I got the train, which I normally too home) and went right back home. It was a surreal vision to watch the towers smolder from the ferry, and then from the train. By the time I got home and turned on the tv, I made it just in time to see the first tower come down - and I never felt a more empty-feeling inside me. Suffice it to say, I had serious trouble sleeping for a while. I still have nightmares of seeing the plane hit the building, and I end up waking in a cold sweat.

I wouldn't say I've gotten over it, but I'm better - I've accepted what happened, and I only hope something gets put there that not only replaces the towers, but reflects our resolve as a people to show that you can't knock us down.

What really kind of drove me crazy was when I realized the towers were no more and all those people died, I thought of my dad. He passed away 11 years ago at a very young age, but he used to work for Shearson Lehman in the WTC. I kept thinking "even if we managed to save him before, he probably would've been gone anyway, and in a much more horrific manner". So in a weird way, I'm glad he wasn't around when this happened - I can't imagine the pain these people felt/are still feeling by not having a recovered body to bury for closure.

[Keyser Soze]

I can't really get too mad at the people who come to visit ground zero. I understand that everyone who comes is there for different reasons. Some are there to mourn and some are there out of curiosity.

What pisses me off more are the merchants that try to make a buck off of selling WTC merchandise.

Theres one thing wanting to come and see ground zero, its another thing entirely to treat it like a tourist attraction.

It will always be a memorial, the plans to have the footprints of the towers remain and not built upon will forever be a place where people will gather and remember.

[AdolescentMasturbator]

I was in school and suddenly they call everyone to the auditorium. This was unscheduled so some people were making stupid reasons for it. Then someone said that a plane hit the wtc. I'm thinking how could a cessna hit the wtc. I thought that story was so full of bullshit. So some of us are listening to the radio because there is no tv in the area we were. And I just listened to the reporter describe the horror of the first tower falling. It was just one of those moments where its like your entire body feels really really bad. Just thinking of the possibility of my father dying a horrific death made it even worse.

[Kid Afrika]

They bombed the WTC?

I was standing outside my office in New Jersey when the first plane flew overhead. I looked at it and thought, damn! that plane looks awfully low. I was preparing for a sales training that I had to give for a bunch of visitors from out of town. In a break before we got started, I checked oa.com and saw the pictures of the first plane hitting. I didn't really think it was gonna be a big deal at first. Even when the second plane hit, I wasn't really all that concerned. Then I called my sister to see if she had heard from our mother. Well, my sister is completely hysterical when she answers the phone and starts screaming "mom's dead, mom's dead". So, I'm like no she's not, her office is no where near there. (I actually had not idea where my mom's office was, I was just trying to calm down my sister) To which, my sister replied, "her office is across the street from the WTC". So at that point, I got a bit worried. I had a feeling that my mom was going to be fine, but my sister was freaking out and I was afraid of what that might do to her kids. So, I left the office and went to be with my sister and her kids until we heard something. Well, at noon we still hadn't heard anything, so I went home and started watching the coverage on TV.

Long story, shortened, my mom finally called a bit after noon. She was sitting in Macy's having a fucking sandwich! Turns out, she left her office just as the second plane hit. They walked east through the park and then north. She didn't see any of the horrible things that people saw that day, and she ended up on like the second train that left NY for NJ.

It's funny that even I can't defile this thread, and not out of any kind of respect for you people or anything. But, this day truly did affect so many of us directly.

[Doc]

Really? Even if you were caught in a panicking tight crowd trying to get away? Had to pull your shirt over your face because of a smoke cloud rolling over you as the first tower falls? Proceeded to inhale rancid air for a month?

Look, I wasn't saying I don't have sympathy for everyone who was affected, it's just that we all went through a lot of shit that day. One of the guys from my house worked in 7 World Trade. He was walking on the street when the first one hit. He didn't turn around because he thought the sound was a dump truck going over a steel plate on the street (anyone who works in the city knows what I mean). He only turned when he saw people running past him. He took a bottle of water, soaked his shirt and breathed through that after they fell. So after going through all that, when he talked to me after he got back to Hoboken, did he feel like his experience was more real than mine? No. He was a lot more scared than me, he got to pick up a memo that flew 10 blocks away out of someone's office on the 70th floor. But we were both affected by it the same way.

What really kind of drove me crazy was when I realized the towers were no more and all those people died

After they fell, there was this column of smoke that staying place for a long time. It wasn't until that smoke cleared (I think it was a day or two) until I fully realized they were gone. And then for a week afterward, there was this smell in the air, and it really hit me when I realized that I was smelling what used to be the buildings

[Gooch]

I had been on my way to work, right outside Penn Station, about to go into my building when my old boss came walking up to me to say that some moron flew into one of the towers. The initial belief, originally, was that a prop plane flew into it. This misconception was probably from the Tower's immense size and the original impact point (before it became a huge inferno). I went upstairs, and found my coworkers telling me it was indeed a jet. Just on my way to the window on our floor, the 2nd jet flew into it. The reaction of my coworkers was complete dismay and shock. The implications, then, hit me that it was coordinated. I am glad I missed that 2nd jet flying into it, b/c I know that those that did see it are haunted by it. What I did see from our windows is the two blackened holes, the smoke billowing, and the slow realization that somehow we had been violated on a level that just left us all numb. We watched from a conferance room, many pacing, silent, sitting...all affected in some way. I left the conference room and went to my computer and turned on my radio. I went onto the OA board, and got a ton of IM's. Not even sure who I spoke to. But, I kept refreshing Tquila's thread to see if there was new info and where from, so I could verify. I was also concerned for my own safety. I was in a 'marked' building that could be targeted b/c of two reasons...1. Goverment facilities 2. CNN. And, above all, I was directly across the street from MSG and Penn Station. While I was gathering info, and talking to my brother via the phone (he works for my company on another floor), I heard over the radio the reporter screaming that the towers were crumbling. I ran over to the confernace room and saw it fall. It just fell in on itself, level after level collapsing. Smoke, debris, and dust mushrooming around it, and eventually taking the place of what was concrete, steel, windows and people. It was gone. I watched the other tower fall as well. The intial reports being thrown around was that it was a bomb inside...but this was an assumption by those who did not understand that once the structure was comprimised, it was inevitable that it would collapse. However, the bomb rumor did shake us further. In another conference room, CNN is playing. Some sit in there to get info. Everyone is shook up. Everyone is just wandering around aimlessly. Trains are not being run. We have no place to go. Some suggest to leave, but the consensus is to stay put. Scott (my brother) and I decide to wait it out, and hope that we get news of the LIRR moving so we can get out of dodge and head out to Long Island and stay at our parents. (Though I live in Queens, I don't want to even go back there). Later that afternoon, I go downstairs onto the street. People walk the streets, some are walking to the bridges. There is a steady stream of dust covered people coming up 8th avenue. Penn Station has become a giant mass of people trying to get into it. There are reports that LIRR trains maybe moving soon. About a 1/2 hour later, the mob is gone, and Scott & I decide we can try to grab a train. All we want to do is just get out of NYC. God knows what else is coming. We go down a side entrance, and catch a train by using little known entrance on the 8th Ave side towards the back of the train. We take the train out to Farmingdale, and just cab it to my parents. My mother, who is concerned and haven't heard from us, is shocked to see us both come sauntering up the walkway at 3pm while there are reports of people still being stuck in NYC for hours. Some never got home till late that evening. We were lucky to have left when we did, b/c we never had any trouble or any crowds once the initial mob had dispersed.

Scott and I went to work the next day, feeling that we did not want someone elses actions dictate our lives. That day, though quiet, was fine. It was two days later when everyone had the nervousness and alot of false alarms. We had to evacuate,etc on that 2nd day. People from CNN were hysterical and crying.

That's where I was on Sept. 11th.

[Arthur Dent]

I was in the subway when the first plane hit. I was in the lobby of my building waiting for an elevator when I heard the second plane hit. The subway stop is right outside my building so I didn't notice anything walking in.

I work three blocks north of Canal Street on 6th Avenue. When I got up to my office, I could see into the holes in the north tower and all the flame and smoke from both. I was listening to 1010Wins on my headphones and trying to get info off the web when I heard the woman announcer scream "Oh my God, the tower is collapsing!" I watched both towers collapse from my window. The debris cloud covered everything up tp 3/4 of the distance between me and the WTC. For a while I thought it might make it all the way to us.

And I can remember the faces of a few co-workers who took the bus passedd the WTC that morning. One guy was completely white and his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

I also remember how the phones were all out. For some reason, I couldn't make calls out on my cell phone, but I could receive them. Around 10:00, my brother finally got through to me and I was able to tell my family I was alright.

Around 2:00, we finally decided to see if any trains were running. When we left the building we stood in the middle of 6th Avenue stairing down at the empty hole in the sky with the thick black smoke rising up. Someone took a picture. When we got up to Houston on our way to the station at West 4th Street, we saw dozens of dump trucks being lined up on Houston. They were already getting ready to move debris for the recue effort.

I couldn't go back to work until the next week because the city was shut down south of 14th Street. And even after that, every corner on Canal Street was guarded by the National Guard, State Troopers, and NYPD. You couldn't get passed them unless you lived down there or had permission to go down there.


I was in London when the Ch. 4 and HBO specials aired. I have them on tape. I still haven't been able to sit down and watch them. Soon.

[The Sleeper]

I was in sleeping in my dorm room (about a mile north of WTC) when it happened. I woke up to go take a piss, tired as all fuck, and my suitemates were watching the news and were like "hey, did you hear about the plane crashes". I didn't even say a word and went back to bed, not even comprehending what happened. I went back to sleep, and 2 hours later I was woken up by my roomate who told me both WTC towers were gone. I couldn't believe it. I also couldn't believe that I just dismissed it 2 hours earlier. Granted I was half asleep at the time but I still felt like an idiot. Several of the dorms at NYU were completely evacuated, so we had 4 or 5 people sleep over at our dorm that night. I spent the day walking around the city trying to comprehend what just happened. I visited several hospitals trying to donate blood, but they were all overly booked, which gave me some reassurance.

[diceisgod]

But, in retrospect, I do recall that fucknut Tequila posting on OA.com and saying he found it funny.

I read that thread in it's entirety and the situation as it's described above is out of context, unfair, and completely stupid. There's no love lost between Tequila and myself, but you should know the facts before shooting your mouth off. Read the thread but before you do: turn on your brain. There. I've done my good deed for the year.

[OAS]

Leave it up to Dice to defile a good thread. And if I recall Dice, he was asked later in the same thread or another one and he even admitted once he understood what was really happening, he still thought it was funny.

[diceisgod]

I got nothing more to say. I'm not trying to defile anything you fucking shithead. Read the thread. Know the facts. Shut your stupid mouth.

[Sean Cold]

I read that thread in it's entirety and the situation as it's described above is out of context, unfair, and completely stupid. There's no love lost between Tequila and myself, but you should know the facts before shooting your mouth off. Read the thread but before you do: turn on your brain. There. I've done my good deed for the year.

While you are busy giving out reading asignments, please try your hardest not to be such a dimwit who wasn't around in the first place and doesn't realize I tore him in that thread for it as well. Don't try and get on your fuckin soapbox for something that wasn't taken out of context you little fucknut. Get your facts straight before you spout off like the dolt everyone sees you for in the first place.