September 11, 2001 shown through multiple video cameras in real time...
September 11, 2024 6:45 AM Subscribe
102 Minutes That Changed America [YouTube] is an American television special documentary film that was produced by the History Channel and premiered commercial-free on Thursday, September 11, 2008, marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The film serves as a compilation of amateur footage taken by numerous people filming the attacks, edited together to present the film in real time. ***[NSFW] [Content Warning: contains graphic footage]***
Wow, even in 2008 the History Channel created something useful??
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posted by Melismata at 7:31 AM on September 11
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posted by Melismata at 7:31 AM on September 11
There's a new-ish multi-hour media assembly out there that shows the ATC and incident response in real time, overlaid on the publicly available video and flight tracking that surprised me when I saw it the a few months back, just how quickly people realized things weren't right, but also how little visibility ATC really had at times.
posted by Kyol at 7:34 AM on September 11 [10 favorites]
posted by Kyol at 7:34 AM on September 11 [10 favorites]
I can't watch because of my personal PTSD, but I was there -- a few blocks from the WTC walking my puppy when the first plane hit. The pictures I took have stayed in my camera roll, phone after phone, photo service after photo service, traveling with me for all these years. Each year I scroll back and look. I'm still not sure I have any way to talk about it. We were so close that the EPA bought me a new mattress. There was a tank parked outside my building for two months.
Today, walking out of my apartment, still just a few blocks from Ground Zero, the morning felt so crisp and perfect, almost exactly like it did 23 years ago. You forget how lovely late September is in NYC.
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posted by The Bellman at 8:05 AM on September 11 [113 favorites]
Today, walking out of my apartment, still just a few blocks from Ground Zero, the morning felt so crisp and perfect, almost exactly like it did 23 years ago. You forget how lovely late September is in NYC.
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posted by The Bellman at 8:05 AM on September 11 [113 favorites]
What a fucking weird and awful day that was.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:05 AM on September 11 [8 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:05 AM on September 11 [8 favorites]
<3, Bellman.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:14 AM on September 11 [4 favorites]
posted by saturday_morning at 8:14 AM on September 11 [4 favorites]
God that day was so surreal. I was originally supposed to be in Manhattan that day. I would have been in Midtown so well out of harms way in a sense, but still.
Instead I was there the week before and one of my coworkers in an uncharastically touristy mood asked me to accompany him to the WTC and observation deck. He had me take a photo of him smiling across the greyness of a cloudy NYC. He posts that photo every year and every year I shudder a little.
Instead of being there I was safely ensconced back in LA waking up to a bad fever dream that seemed so fake that I thought my roomate had left the TV on a channel showing a bad action movie where the hero saves the day from the evil terrorists.
And didn't the country end up acting like that's all they wanted - the big swinging hero coming in to mow down those who'd threaten Truth, Justice and the American Way?
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:42 AM on September 11 [11 favorites]
Instead I was there the week before and one of my coworkers in an uncharastically touristy mood asked me to accompany him to the WTC and observation deck. He had me take a photo of him smiling across the greyness of a cloudy NYC. He posts that photo every year and every year I shudder a little.
Instead of being there I was safely ensconced back in LA waking up to a bad fever dream that seemed so fake that I thought my roomate had left the TV on a channel showing a bad action movie where the hero saves the day from the evil terrorists.
And didn't the country end up acting like that's all they wanted - the big swinging hero coming in to mow down those who'd threaten Truth, Justice and the American Way?
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:42 AM on September 11 [11 favorites]
I’d lived in the city 6 years by then, but NYC lost its magic that day. The first reports made me shrug because I’d read about the time a small plane hit the Empire State Building. But after the second plane we all crowded around the television in horror. After they collapsed the boss sent us home. I walked across the 59th St Bridge and caught the G, which was still running. Then I had to walk through the Gowanus to get home, under the cloud of smoke. Ashes and burned bits of still readable paperwork fell from the sky around me, caking the ground in gray. All our tv reception at home relied on the WTC transmitters, so we plugged in the extant coax and discovered we got a random assortment of free cable. It was really confusing and scary not knowing who had done this or why.
posted by rikschell at 9:34 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 9:34 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
It was a gorgeous day in the DC area also on September 11th. Today's weather reminds me well of that day, except ... I live in the flight path of National Airport and can hear planes taking off and approaching for landing right now. It became very quiet in the skies that day, in stark contrast to today. Also, I saw the smoke from the Pentagon burning, a stain in the sky.
It took me a while to make it home from work, due to general chaos in the DC area. Cell service was overwhelmed and not working and after our office closed we had to sit around for a while in cars in the parking lot listening to car radios as the news filtered in about what was happening. My friend gave me a ride back to Virginia from our office in Maryland but traffic was crazy so I eventually told her to just drop me off and then I walked quite a way. Once I finally got home I turned on CNN. I won't ever forget some of the raw footage (some of which has never been re-shown to the public out of respect for the dead.)
I made a comment in 2013 about 9/11, and it still holds true for me (sadly):
[9/11] was the first experience of being attacked for the U.S. government in a long, long time. They were pretty traumatized by it, a lot of them still are. They overreacted then (Iraq), they are still in the throes of overreacting (i.e. more erosion of freedom in the name of security). I feel in a way like the country is a car that was in an accident, starting to skid, is still skidding, and has not yet figured out how to right itself.
For me, it is important to try to remember that each individual person has value and that those who died that day each had their own story and had people who cared for them, and should be remembered, that history is at its heart the stories of individuals.
posted by gudrun at 9:46 AM on September 11 [14 favorites]
It took me a while to make it home from work, due to general chaos in the DC area. Cell service was overwhelmed and not working and after our office closed we had to sit around for a while in cars in the parking lot listening to car radios as the news filtered in about what was happening. My friend gave me a ride back to Virginia from our office in Maryland but traffic was crazy so I eventually told her to just drop me off and then I walked quite a way. Once I finally got home I turned on CNN. I won't ever forget some of the raw footage (some of which has never been re-shown to the public out of respect for the dead.)
I made a comment in 2013 about 9/11, and it still holds true for me (sadly):
[9/11] was the first experience of being attacked for the U.S. government in a long, long time. They were pretty traumatized by it, a lot of them still are. They overreacted then (Iraq), they are still in the throes of overreacting (i.e. more erosion of freedom in the name of security). I feel in a way like the country is a car that was in an accident, starting to skid, is still skidding, and has not yet figured out how to right itself.
For me, it is important to try to remember that each individual person has value and that those who died that day each had their own story and had people who cared for them, and should be remembered, that history is at its heart the stories of individuals.
posted by gudrun at 9:46 AM on September 11 [14 favorites]
I was a disaffected, depressed 18 year old college student in North Carolina in 2001, who saw this unfold on tv and could feel sympathy, but it didn't hit me hard.
Now, 23 years later as a resident of New York for the last 15, I watch this with tears in my eyes thinking of my friends and memories that would be destroyed if this happened again today. The scope of death and fear and trauma that was experienced that day is incomprehensible to me now.
posted by greta simone at 10:27 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Now, 23 years later as a resident of New York for the last 15, I watch this with tears in my eyes thinking of my friends and memories that would be destroyed if this happened again today. The scope of death and fear and trauma that was experienced that day is incomprehensible to me now.
posted by greta simone at 10:27 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Yep, I was there. Don't need to see it again.
posted by slogger at 10:42 AM on September 11 [7 favorites]
posted by slogger at 10:42 AM on September 11 [7 favorites]
I was in high school, study hall, in a little library room. They announced the first plane over the loudspeaker and I was just kind of puzzled, no sense of what that meant. When the second plane hit, or maybe when the towers collapsed, they had everyone gather in the chapel (Catholic school). A few students were frantically trying to get ahold of a parent or other family member who was at the WTC that day. We were in southern Connecticut, so a lot of commuters to NYC. My father is a volunteer firefighter and his company offered relief services in the coming weeks, though they weren't among the first down there. Lot of emergency workers who worked at the site have since died from cancer and other health issues from exposure.
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posted by carrioncomfort at 11:00 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
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posted by carrioncomfort at 11:00 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
It was such a surreal day...
I was heading to work in Bellevue from Seattle. Listening to sports radio as I do.
And the first plane hit. No one quite knew what was going on. And then the second plane hit. And then the towers came down...
And our building was on the edge of downtown, and would have been a pretty easy target. So spent an hour or two looking east out of my office window, until they told us to go home.
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For all the people who lost their lives that day. Such a horrific event. Will never not make me cry thinking about it.
posted by Windopaene at 11:03 AM on September 11 [2 favorites]
I was heading to work in Bellevue from Seattle. Listening to sports radio as I do.
And the first plane hit. No one quite knew what was going on. And then the second plane hit. And then the towers came down...
And our building was on the edge of downtown, and would have been a pretty easy target. So spent an hour or two looking east out of my office window, until they told us to go home.
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For all the people who lost their lives that day. Such a horrific event. Will never not make me cry thinking about it.
posted by Windopaene at 11:03 AM on September 11 [2 favorites]
The original 9/11 thread on Metafilter.
I was in the US Air Force on that day, stationed in San Antonio, Texas - with one huge Army post and three Air Force bases. It was absolutely surreal - gridlock for miles at access points, nobody knew exactly what was happening, where to go, etc.
In addition to the sheer horror, sadness, and outrage, the entire day - and the next several days - were haunted by the fear of what might happen next, if any other such attacks were imminent.
posted by davidmsc at 11:10 AM on September 11 [15 favorites]
I was in the US Air Force on that day, stationed in San Antonio, Texas - with one huge Army post and three Air Force bases. It was absolutely surreal - gridlock for miles at access points, nobody knew exactly what was happening, where to go, etc.
In addition to the sheer horror, sadness, and outrage, the entire day - and the next several days - were haunted by the fear of what might happen next, if any other such attacks were imminent.
posted by davidmsc at 11:10 AM on September 11 [15 favorites]
I was across West Street at my desk when everything happened, then in Battery Park when the first tower fell and up near the seaport when the second one went...
posted by AJaffe at 11:20 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
posted by AJaffe at 11:20 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Just a note about that 23-year-old thread: as you might expect, we were not all at our best that day. I don't remember if I was lurking here that early or not. I don't think so, but standards of discourse were ... not great back then.
posted by rikschell at 11:32 AM on September 11 [8 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 11:32 AM on September 11 [8 favorites]
there were two threads that day on the attack, the first one still remains the second one was deleted.
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posted by clavdivs at 11:47 AM on September 11
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posted by clavdivs at 11:47 AM on September 11
I was another DC resident, scrambling to carpool to get out of the city. I worked a block away from the White House and sometimes wonder about Flight 93 and whether they saved my life.
posted by PussKillian at 12:39 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 12:39 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
There's a new-ish multi-hour media assembly out there that shows the ATC and incident response in real time
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
With that, I was particularly struck by the advertisement coincidentally playing on CNN the very moment the first plane struck the WTC, an ad for the Pennsylvania University system featuring Governor Tom Ridge, soon to become the first Secretary of Homeland Security as a direct result of the attacks.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:39 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
With that, I was particularly struck by the advertisement coincidentally playing on CNN the very moment the first plane struck the WTC, an ad for the Pennsylvania University system featuring Governor Tom Ridge, soon to become the first Secretary of Homeland Security as a direct result of the attacks.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:39 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
I was living in Rhode Island in 2001, but watched it all on TV; plenty of friends were in the city and we fretted until we heard from them.
And then I went to the Memorial and Museum a few years ago with busload of Cub Scouts. The kids were blandly curious, but the adults seemed kind of short-circuited by the time we found ourselves deep in the exhibits, among gray light and flickering TV sets and a fire truck and endlessly-looping video of the day's cruelest tragedies.
I didn't quite have a panic attack, but I felt really...overwhelmed by a flight reaction, with nowhere to go. (Thinking about that day still does it to me.) Getting up into the plaza and visiting Mychal Judge's name on the black slabs was calming.
I think of his prayer a lot:
And then I went to the Memorial and Museum a few years ago with busload of Cub Scouts. The kids were blandly curious, but the adults seemed kind of short-circuited by the time we found ourselves deep in the exhibits, among gray light and flickering TV sets and a fire truck and endlessly-looping video of the day's cruelest tragedies.
I didn't quite have a panic attack, but I felt really...overwhelmed by a flight reaction, with nowhere to go. (Thinking about that day still does it to me.) Getting up into the plaza and visiting Mychal Judge's name on the black slabs was calming.
I think of his prayer a lot:
“Lord, take me where You want me to goposted by wenestvedt at 12:56 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
Let me meet who You want me to meet
Tell me what You want me to say and
Keep me out of your way.”
— Fr Mychal Judge
I live in the flight path of National Airport and can hear planes taking off and approaching for landing right now.
Another couple of surreal memory from those times, I too lived in the Glover Park area of DC in the flight path for National.
First, my roommates and I, once I finally made it home late that evening having walked home across town too scared by the false rumors of other attackers in the Metro and Embassy Row, sat down not knowing what to do with ourselves and truly faded by all that had happened set to getting as intoxicated as we could muster. Having consumed all the alcohol in the house we stepped outside to smoke cigarettes and the remnants of my roommate's weed stash around midnight. Standing there in the eerie silence of a capital on war lockdown for the first time in our lives we heard the frightening sound of plane engines overhead. We all looked up to see the unmistakable triangular black silhouettes of two stealth bombers skimming the tree line over our neighborhood.
Months later travelling back home after a long work day, the entire bus let out an audible gasp as we all saw a commercial jetliner skimming in over the rooftops, and then there was a collective sigh of relief as we all remembered that it was the day they were reopening National for the first time since 9/11.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:01 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]
Another couple of surreal memory from those times, I too lived in the Glover Park area of DC in the flight path for National.
First, my roommates and I, once I finally made it home late that evening having walked home across town too scared by the false rumors of other attackers in the Metro and Embassy Row, sat down not knowing what to do with ourselves and truly faded by all that had happened set to getting as intoxicated as we could muster. Having consumed all the alcohol in the house we stepped outside to smoke cigarettes and the remnants of my roommate's weed stash around midnight. Standing there in the eerie silence of a capital on war lockdown for the first time in our lives we heard the frightening sound of plane engines overhead. We all looked up to see the unmistakable triangular black silhouettes of two stealth bombers skimming the tree line over our neighborhood.
Months later travelling back home after a long work day, the entire bus let out an audible gasp as we all saw a commercial jetliner skimming in over the rooftops, and then there was a collective sigh of relief as we all remembered that it was the day they were reopening National for the first time since 9/11.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:01 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]
That documentary in the post is really worth watching if you can stomach it. I was only 12 at the time and had never been anywhere near NYC (where I now live), and watching it a few years after moving here helped me understand some things about what the city experienced that I didn’t understand before.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:07 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:07 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Trump smiling and winking at female photographers during the 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York. Trump and sons looking around during a moment of silence. JV Dance in Trump cosplay.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:12 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
posted by kirkaracha at 1:12 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Perhaps one of the most amazing feats was how quickly the entire US airspace was cleared as the picture unfolded.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:17 PM on September 11
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:17 PM on September 11
JV Dance in Trump cosplay
Obv Trump's hands are photoshopped bigger
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:25 PM on September 11
Obv Trump's hands are photoshopped bigger
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:25 PM on September 11
JV Dance in Trump cosplay
What's with the prostate cancer ribbons?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:27 PM on September 11
What's with the prostate cancer ribbons?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:27 PM on September 11
I know this will land poorly for a lot of folks, but I try to adopt a 'vale of ignorance' approach to things, especially those that have an obvious emotional valence...
9/11 is when I started paying attention to politics and especially global real politik in earnest. To me, when I think about the victims of 9/11, I also think of the human cost of the energy trade and the supposed 'pax americana'.
Those victims in Manhattan and the trauma their communities faced are not about 'justice' or 'eyeforeye' or anything that makes sense. It's all tragic. It's all horrible. But I try to remember the small ways in which I am complicit and especially the way the 'american way of life' is complicit in this.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:29 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]
9/11 is when I started paying attention to politics and especially global real politik in earnest. To me, when I think about the victims of 9/11, I also think of the human cost of the energy trade and the supposed 'pax americana'.
Those victims in Manhattan and the trauma their communities faced are not about 'justice' or 'eyeforeye' or anything that makes sense. It's all tragic. It's all horrible. But I try to remember the small ways in which I am complicit and especially the way the 'american way of life' is complicit in this.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:29 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]
It’s estimated that well over 1/3 of humans alive today were born post 9.11.01. I think about that sometimes - the ever growing % of people who’s entire lived experience has been shaped by how it changed the world.
I have no real story - I was 9,000 miles away in New Zealand - was woken before 5am by a panicked parent who thought a nuclear attack had occurred, and tuned into the 5am Morning Report on Radio NZ which scared the living shit out of me (45 second extract if anyone interested in how it was presented on the other side of the world)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:04 PM on September 11 [9 favorites]
I have no real story - I was 9,000 miles away in New Zealand - was woken before 5am by a panicked parent who thought a nuclear attack had occurred, and tuned into the 5am Morning Report on Radio NZ which scared the living shit out of me (45 second extract if anyone interested in how it was presented on the other side of the world)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:04 PM on September 11 [9 favorites]
It’s estimated that well over 1/3 of humans alive today were born post 9.11.01. I think about that sometimes - the ever growing % of people who’s entire lived experience has been shaped by how it changed the world.
I don't think the world changed for the better and as someone who was far removed from the horrible events, I can't help but focus on that every year when this date rolls around.
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
About 5 years later I worked as a tour guide at the US Capitol and one of my colleagues was an older woman. She was extremely kind, a foster mother of probably over a dozen kids, and she always proudly referred to them as "her kids!" But I remember somehow the conversation one day turned to 9/11 and she recalled standing outside the Capitol and watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. She then shared that on December 7, 1941, her family lived in Hawaii as her father was in the military, and she remembered as a little girl watching the smoke rise up from Pearl Harbor. This has just stuck with me ever since.
posted by Atreides at 2:27 PM on September 11 [14 favorites]
I don't think the world changed for the better and as someone who was far removed from the horrible events, I can't help but focus on that every year when this date rolls around.
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
About 5 years later I worked as a tour guide at the US Capitol and one of my colleagues was an older woman. She was extremely kind, a foster mother of probably over a dozen kids, and she always proudly referred to them as "her kids!" But I remember somehow the conversation one day turned to 9/11 and she recalled standing outside the Capitol and watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. She then shared that on December 7, 1941, her family lived in Hawaii as her father was in the military, and she remembered as a little girl watching the smoke rise up from Pearl Harbor. This has just stuck with me ever since.
posted by Atreides at 2:27 PM on September 11 [14 favorites]
I'd needed to sleep and organize the apartment in the morning, so I'd turned my phone off the night before and didn't turn it on again until noon. I had about twenty messages from various people, all asking if I was okay and none mentioning what had happened. The first thing my dad says when I call him asking what the hell is going on is, "remember the twin towers?" "Remember?"
It's weird to think that for about a week Rudy Giuliani was a hero just for being an actual, genuine human being for a minute. Then he announced that he wanted to cancel the upcoming mayoral election because of the ongoing crisis and we were all oh hell no.
It's surreal just how kind New Yorkers were to each other in the days and months after. Wish we could have held on to that.
Also: not hearing airplanes constantly. It's like during the subway strike when the rumble was noticeable by its absence.
posted by phooky at 2:30 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
It's weird to think that for about a week Rudy Giuliani was a hero just for being an actual, genuine human being for a minute. Then he announced that he wanted to cancel the upcoming mayoral election because of the ongoing crisis and we were all oh hell no.
It's surreal just how kind New Yorkers were to each other in the days and months after. Wish we could have held on to that.
Also: not hearing airplanes constantly. It's like during the subway strike when the rumble was noticeable by its absence.
posted by phooky at 2:30 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
My friend wrote a middle-grades children's book about that day. It was shockingly brutal and frightening: a young boy escaping from the doomed towers, contrasted with the story of a girl in Afghanistan years later dealing with a wounded American soldier. He wrote it for a generation of kids so far removed from what happened. Many of whose parents DID experience it and are still too traumatized to talk about it rationally. I admire what he did, but fuck that book was harrowing.
posted by rikschell at 2:52 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 2:52 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
Stumbled on this link to the original MeFi thread in my Blue Sky feed.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:26 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
Every few years I reread this live-blogging of 9/11. It’s…a lot. But it’s what I think of when kids ask me what that day was like. Not an easy read—and the archives for that month capture more of the reaction—but this is what it felt like in the moment.(Blue Sky link but it will only work for people logged into Blue Sky because settings.)Plane crashes in to the word trade center. Apologies for not linking to anything besides the main CNN page but there are no full stories on this yet. The plane crashed into the building about six minutes ago, from what the TV is saying. We are about sixty blocks north and we can see the smoke over the skyline.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:26 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
It was a beautiful, sunny September morning in Southern NJ. I worked for a newspaper and nobody knew what the hell to do. We published an afternoon edition but by the time that hit the streets most of the stories were already out of date, and everyone who had access was staring at internet news sites to keep up. IMO, that day combined with craigslist coming to our metro area was the beginning of the end of our local newspaper as we knew it.
I don't reread live accounts of that day anymore. I remember it all too well, as I do the fear of an anthrax letter being in the middle of the contest entries we were still required to open.
posted by kimberussell at 3:36 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
I don't reread live accounts of that day anymore. I remember it all too well, as I do the fear of an anthrax letter being in the middle of the contest entries we were still required to open.
posted by kimberussell at 3:36 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
In 2001 my brother worked near the WTC. He rode the PATH train to it every day. He usually got there right around the time the first plane struck. Luckily for him and his family, his nine year old son somehow made him late for work that day. He spent a lot of time stuck on a NJ Transit train that morning, but it was certainly better than any of the alternatives.
I had just started my PhD program at Rutgers a week before, 25 miles or so from Manhattan. I had heard about a plane hitting the tower before I went into a early class, but the scope of the event wasn't clear at that point. Someone came into class late and told us that both towers were hit by passenger jets. We carried on with the class, but I went home afterward as the university shut down, I think for the rest of the week. The weather was shockingly beautiful, and all I could think to do was to wash my car and listen to NPR.
posted by mollweide at 3:48 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
I had just started my PhD program at Rutgers a week before, 25 miles or so from Manhattan. I had heard about a plane hitting the tower before I went into a early class, but the scope of the event wasn't clear at that point. Someone came into class late and told us that both towers were hit by passenger jets. We carried on with the class, but I went home afterward as the university shut down, I think for the rest of the week. The weather was shockingly beautiful, and all I could think to do was to wash my car and listen to NPR.
posted by mollweide at 3:48 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
My office was on Broadway literally next to the Trinity Church graveyard. Amazingly, my partner knew from the first plane that this was not going to end well and he immediately told all 50 or so of us to leave, get out of the area. Many of the traders refused at first because they had positions. Before that office, I worked in the Trade Center, south tower. I cannot tell you how many times I was up at Windows on the World for analyst meetings or corporate (read free!) dinners. It was eerie to see small sightseeing tourist planes fly by BELOW you.
I lost 4 friends that day. Cantor Fitz traders and a high school friend on a lower but still upper floor. The stories of these guys leaving voice mails for their wives and children saying it was over still make me tear up.
Two days after 9/11 I got a police escort down to my office so I could recover some items. The policeman who drove me, I think from Houston Street, kept saying are you sure, you will not be able to unsee it. I said, I had no choice. He was right. We drove down Broadway past the still smoking pile. He waited while I grabbed all the documents and people's personal affects I could carry in the one box I was given. They gave me a hard hat to wear in the building which I still have.
I went to HS with a bunch of policemen and firemen who worked the pile for months afterwards. Speaking to them at a HS reunion was incredible in both tragically sad ways and in some uplifting ways. Their devotion to their fallen brethren was incredible.
I was born 20+ years after Pearl Harbor. About the same time we are from 9/11. Peral harbor was something old people spoke about and when I got old enough I read about it in my history books. Kids born in the aughts, I think 1/3 of the world population was cited above, have no clue.
Never forget.
. (Huge Dot for all the victims here in NY, in DC, and in Shanksville.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:52 PM on September 11 [20 favorites]
I lost 4 friends that day. Cantor Fitz traders and a high school friend on a lower but still upper floor. The stories of these guys leaving voice mails for their wives and children saying it was over still make me tear up.
Two days after 9/11 I got a police escort down to my office so I could recover some items. The policeman who drove me, I think from Houston Street, kept saying are you sure, you will not be able to unsee it. I said, I had no choice. He was right. We drove down Broadway past the still smoking pile. He waited while I grabbed all the documents and people's personal affects I could carry in the one box I was given. They gave me a hard hat to wear in the building which I still have.
I went to HS with a bunch of policemen and firemen who worked the pile for months afterwards. Speaking to them at a HS reunion was incredible in both tragically sad ways and in some uplifting ways. Their devotion to their fallen brethren was incredible.
I was born 20+ years after Pearl Harbor. About the same time we are from 9/11. Peral harbor was something old people spoke about and when I got old enough I read about it in my history books. Kids born in the aughts, I think 1/3 of the world population was cited above, have no clue.
Never forget.
. (Huge Dot for all the victims here in NY, in DC, and in Shanksville.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:52 PM on September 11 [20 favorites]
Tried watching the video...
Couldn't make it past the second plane coming in...
How are we so fucked up as a species that someone would choose to do this to other people...?
Kind of like the current I/P shit. How can you feel good about yourself while killing thousands of people?
.
posted by Windopaene at 4:08 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
Couldn't make it past the second plane coming in...
How are we so fucked up as a species that someone would choose to do this to other people...?
Kind of like the current I/P shit. How can you feel good about yourself while killing thousands of people?
.
posted by Windopaene at 4:08 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
Friends had just picked me up at Heathrow. We had driven to the countryside near Southhamptont and just stopped at an inn as my friends wanted to treat me to cottled tea. It was about 3:00PM there. The waitress who came to take our order noticed I was American and said, "Have you heard? Two planes flew into the Twin Towers" I had no idea what she was saying as I never knew that the were called "Twin Towers" I knew them as the World Trade Center.
She clarified what was going on? It was weird what happened next as I am not sure why...I can only attribute it to it being a yoga teacher at the time.
There's that rising feeling you get in your body after your first or second hit of weed. That rising sensation that spreads up and out and fills your skull. I had an accelerated version of that...like an elevator rising at full speed then reverse crashing into my gut.
I don't think I could finish the tea and asked if we could go home. Halfway there, I asked them to pull over into the wood so I could vomit. Turns out I was throwing up in the real "Hundred Acre Wood"
We didn't see the falls during real time. I remember watching and realizing the value of a stiff drink.
I had been in Ireland with others for a retreat. The facilitator was American. We had all gone our separate ways. Once I realized what was going on there was this primal urge to "group" behind some leadership. I realized then the value of embassies in foreign countries.
The strangest thing about "being out looking in" was the felt chaos of everything. From my vantage point it seemed like for three or four days there was no direction for the country. Government, media, military, all of it. It was similar to the chaos of the air controller that morning. No one could get a bead on anything. All of a sudden there was nothing to grab. It seemed around the 3rd or 4th day, a narrative was settled on and the country as a whole began to move in a direction. Didn't matter where.
It was like the curse of being a behemoth.
I saw during the Rodney King riots in early 90"s Los Angeles how quickly people are willing to give up their liberties when they are threatened. I remember thinking for this country, "Please don't go there" Please don't go there"
The thing that boggles my mind in Sliney's having to make the decision to shut down the air space. The more I take on leadership roles, the more I understand how important the term "secure the perimeter" is even on the smallest scale.
posted by goalyeehah at 4:13 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
She clarified what was going on? It was weird what happened next as I am not sure why...I can only attribute it to it being a yoga teacher at the time.
There's that rising feeling you get in your body after your first or second hit of weed. That rising sensation that spreads up and out and fills your skull. I had an accelerated version of that...like an elevator rising at full speed then reverse crashing into my gut.
I don't think I could finish the tea and asked if we could go home. Halfway there, I asked them to pull over into the wood so I could vomit. Turns out I was throwing up in the real "Hundred Acre Wood"
We didn't see the falls during real time. I remember watching and realizing the value of a stiff drink.
I had been in Ireland with others for a retreat. The facilitator was American. We had all gone our separate ways. Once I realized what was going on there was this primal urge to "group" behind some leadership. I realized then the value of embassies in foreign countries.
The strangest thing about "being out looking in" was the felt chaos of everything. From my vantage point it seemed like for three or four days there was no direction for the country. Government, media, military, all of it. It was similar to the chaos of the air controller that morning. No one could get a bead on anything. All of a sudden there was nothing to grab. It seemed around the 3rd or 4th day, a narrative was settled on and the country as a whole began to move in a direction. Didn't matter where.
It was like the curse of being a behemoth.
I saw during the Rodney King riots in early 90"s Los Angeles how quickly people are willing to give up their liberties when they are threatened. I remember thinking for this country, "Please don't go there" Please don't go there"
The thing that boggles my mind in Sliney's having to make the decision to shut down the air space. The more I take on leadership roles, the more I understand how important the term "secure the perimeter" is even on the smallest scale.
posted by goalyeehah at 4:13 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
.
The day before, something crushing had happened to me, one of those significantly-bad-but-normative things that happens in life. I'd been reeling and feeling exceedingly disconnected from reality for about a day, so waking up (in Seattle) to the news that the WTC had been attacked was surreal on top of surreal.
I wasn't here then, so I only read the 9/11 thread years later. I think it's a very useful perspective on events as they unfolded. (I've also read many of the tangent threads that popped up that day and in the days following.) I reject wholeheartedly any criticism of that thread. The site has changed, but MetaFilter is both significantly better and significantly worse today than it was in 2001. I would urge the curious who have never read that thread to walk in with empathy for people shocked, suffering, grieving, and angry.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:23 PM on September 11 [6 favorites]
The day before, something crushing had happened to me, one of those significantly-bad-but-normative things that happens in life. I'd been reeling and feeling exceedingly disconnected from reality for about a day, so waking up (in Seattle) to the news that the WTC had been attacked was surreal on top of surreal.
I wasn't here then, so I only read the 9/11 thread years later. I think it's a very useful perspective on events as they unfolded. (I've also read many of the tangent threads that popped up that day and in the days following.) I reject wholeheartedly any criticism of that thread. The site has changed, but MetaFilter is both significantly better and significantly worse today than it was in 2001. I would urge the curious who have never read that thread to walk in with empathy for people shocked, suffering, grieving, and angry.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:23 PM on September 11 [6 favorites]
I lived in Providence, RI at the time, with family working in both Boston and NYC. We were on lockdown too, under advice that the train route from Boston to NY was a likely escape route for suspected accomplices.
I was home sick when the spouse called to ask if I was watching the news. I turned it on in time to see the second plane hit.
I remember watching the people jump out of the building. That changed something in me forever.
Boston family member ended up leaving their meeting without approval and had the wherewithal to immediately rent a car and drove home rather than count on the trains. All phone calls to NYC failed.
In 2019, I hosted a person from the UK for a week. One evening, he started to tell me that had been traveling that week and wasn't aware of what had happened until he got back from his trip, but he had watched a bunch of videos about 9/11 and "he had figured out what really happened ", and I stopped him from continuing - I felt rage, absolute rage, at the idea that someone who was not here at the time - here, in the US, here in the DC to Boston corridor - could watch YouTube videos and know anything about that day. If you had asked me about 9/11 the day before, I would have said it was a terrible time but we all got past it. Evidently, that is not true.
posted by Silvery Fish at 5:54 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
I was home sick when the spouse called to ask if I was watching the news. I turned it on in time to see the second plane hit.
I remember watching the people jump out of the building. That changed something in me forever.
Boston family member ended up leaving their meeting without approval and had the wherewithal to immediately rent a car and drove home rather than count on the trains. All phone calls to NYC failed.
In 2019, I hosted a person from the UK for a week. One evening, he started to tell me that had been traveling that week and wasn't aware of what had happened until he got back from his trip, but he had watched a bunch of videos about 9/11 and "he had figured out what really happened ", and I stopped him from continuing - I felt rage, absolute rage, at the idea that someone who was not here at the time - here, in the US, here in the DC to Boston corridor - could watch YouTube videos and know anything about that day. If you had asked me about 9/11 the day before, I would have said it was a terrible time but we all got past it. Evidently, that is not true.
posted by Silvery Fish at 5:54 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
I remember someone saying in the original thread (I'd rather not go back and reread it) that it was like living in a movie that was telling the end of the country. I may not have phrased it accurately, but it was one of the comments that stuck with me. I was just about to drive my son to high school; had a phone call from a close friend who told me what had happened. 23 years ago.
posted by jokeefe at 6:46 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
posted by jokeefe at 6:46 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
I'd just walked into the 911 dispatch center where I was training. We had a TV on a cart that'd get turned on when it was slow... that morning, it happened to be on a news channel.
As soon as they started talking about the (first) plane into the WTC, I literally said, there are more. My much more experienced coworkers thought it was an accident and I was overreacting... until we watched the second one hit.
My husband was home on leave from the military at the time. Due to the flight restrictions, his leave ended up being longer... and I have a 9/11 baby boom daughter who is now 22.
posted by stormyteal at 6:50 PM on September 11 [9 favorites]
As soon as they started talking about the (first) plane into the WTC, I literally said, there are more. My much more experienced coworkers thought it was an accident and I was overreacting... until we watched the second one hit.
My husband was home on leave from the military at the time. Due to the flight restrictions, his leave ended up being longer... and I have a 9/11 baby boom daughter who is now 22.
posted by stormyteal at 6:50 PM on September 11 [9 favorites]
Even now, I cannot look at pictures from that morning. Too horrible. It just reopens that traumatic day. I'll never forget the feeling of vertigo and utter shock.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:32 PM on September 11
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:32 PM on September 11
I was at 21st street near 7th Ave. I slept through it- I had worked late the night before at Artisanal, which had opened in July, and was a huge hit- 150 wines by the glass, 60-80 cheeses from all over the world in the cheese cave...
I remember the building shaking while I was still in bed, starting to wake up, it was probably one of the towers coming down, but at the time I figured it was the express train on 7th ave, which we could feel sometimes.
I got up and turned on the radio, WBGO out of Newark, and instead of jazz I heard VERY SERIOUS TALKING. The phone had been ringing like crazy so I checked the messages. It was my sister first, she and her husband and baby had moved to Westchester a few months before "CHRIS CHRIS get out of the city both World Trade towers are down!"
Down? that makes no sense. How can they be down? WTF is she talking about? Then I turned on the tv. Then I went to the avenue and saw the plume, and the people walking north caked in dust and debris.
I called work, of course, and the manager was like OF COURSE WE ARE CLOSED TODAY.
I got a call out to my folks in central MA, told them I was ok, got a call out to the girlfriend I was living with at the time, before the phones went dead or overwhelmed or both. She'd gotten up early and had breakfast with a friend, then tried to go to work, at the Time Warner building, and they were turning everyone away. She told me to get wine and water and meet her at her friends place. Why she went there instead of home to me I'll never know. I schlepped 4 bottles of wine and at least three gallons of water over there, we thought the water was going to fail or be poisoned.
My ladyfriends friend was/is the girlfriend of Sandra Bernhard, so I spent a bunch of that day with her, a few friends, and her young daughter, a 3 or 4 year old red head freckled kid who was just happy and playing and had no idea. We talked about going to donate blood, but found out somehow that the powers that be said don't bother, there will not be many people surviving. They were turning blood donors away.
So we walked a few blocks to the west side highway, and fire trucks and ambulances and emergency equipment were just flowing down the highway, from upstate, from Connecticut, RI, MA, NH, Penn...a steady stream of brave souls going to dig for the dead. We cheered them hard.
We went home, and two work friends of my lady friend, who lived very close (Nasau St) came over with their dog. They stayed with us for weeks. Another friend who lived in the battery are came, she stayed for months. Two friends who lived at 12th and 1st ave came over, I walked them back to 14th street around 2 am and they got through the security checkpoint. I'd taken the doggo with me, she needed a walk. As I got back to my place thunder rolled in, and a pelting rain came down. I stood in it and started weeping. The dog was confused.
In January 2002 I moved into a month to month "studio" at Greenwich and Rector, south of ground zero. It had not been cleaned. Thick dust everywhere. I walked past Hamilton's grave evrey night, and had visions of him bursting from the ground, wreathed in green flame, asking (like Daniel Webster) if all was right with the union. Then he would blast into the sky at 700 mph heading straight for Tora Bora to get BinLaden by himself.
I have more stories about living down there, and what happened after. But what happened the night before still spooks me. I was walking home from work, crossing the street around the Flatiron where Broadway and another n-s ave intersect, and the e-w cross street is a two-way, so it is usually a deathtrap of cabs jumping the light, food delivery e-bikes (even back then) zooming in at all angles, lots of honking horns, and the night before 9-11 it was eerily still. I thought out loud TANDOORI TO GO. From Watchmen. I had the unique sensation the the quiet was like what the city would be like if all of a sudden a lot of people were gone.
Thank you for this thread.
posted by vrakatar at 7:35 PM on September 11 [16 favorites]
I remember the building shaking while I was still in bed, starting to wake up, it was probably one of the towers coming down, but at the time I figured it was the express train on 7th ave, which we could feel sometimes.
I got up and turned on the radio, WBGO out of Newark, and instead of jazz I heard VERY SERIOUS TALKING. The phone had been ringing like crazy so I checked the messages. It was my sister first, she and her husband and baby had moved to Westchester a few months before "CHRIS CHRIS get out of the city both World Trade towers are down!"
Down? that makes no sense. How can they be down? WTF is she talking about? Then I turned on the tv. Then I went to the avenue and saw the plume, and the people walking north caked in dust and debris.
I called work, of course, and the manager was like OF COURSE WE ARE CLOSED TODAY.
I got a call out to my folks in central MA, told them I was ok, got a call out to the girlfriend I was living with at the time, before the phones went dead or overwhelmed or both. She'd gotten up early and had breakfast with a friend, then tried to go to work, at the Time Warner building, and they were turning everyone away. She told me to get wine and water and meet her at her friends place. Why she went there instead of home to me I'll never know. I schlepped 4 bottles of wine and at least three gallons of water over there, we thought the water was going to fail or be poisoned.
My ladyfriends friend was/is the girlfriend of Sandra Bernhard, so I spent a bunch of that day with her, a few friends, and her young daughter, a 3 or 4 year old red head freckled kid who was just happy and playing and had no idea. We talked about going to donate blood, but found out somehow that the powers that be said don't bother, there will not be many people surviving. They were turning blood donors away.
So we walked a few blocks to the west side highway, and fire trucks and ambulances and emergency equipment were just flowing down the highway, from upstate, from Connecticut, RI, MA, NH, Penn...a steady stream of brave souls going to dig for the dead. We cheered them hard.
We went home, and two work friends of my lady friend, who lived very close (Nasau St) came over with their dog. They stayed with us for weeks. Another friend who lived in the battery are came, she stayed for months. Two friends who lived at 12th and 1st ave came over, I walked them back to 14th street around 2 am and they got through the security checkpoint. I'd taken the doggo with me, she needed a walk. As I got back to my place thunder rolled in, and a pelting rain came down. I stood in it and started weeping. The dog was confused.
In January 2002 I moved into a month to month "studio" at Greenwich and Rector, south of ground zero. It had not been cleaned. Thick dust everywhere. I walked past Hamilton's grave evrey night, and had visions of him bursting from the ground, wreathed in green flame, asking (like Daniel Webster) if all was right with the union. Then he would blast into the sky at 700 mph heading straight for Tora Bora to get BinLaden by himself.
I have more stories about living down there, and what happened after. But what happened the night before still spooks me. I was walking home from work, crossing the street around the Flatiron where Broadway and another n-s ave intersect, and the e-w cross street is a two-way, so it is usually a deathtrap of cabs jumping the light, food delivery e-bikes (even back then) zooming in at all angles, lots of honking horns, and the night before 9-11 it was eerily still. I thought out loud TANDOORI TO GO. From Watchmen. I had the unique sensation the the quiet was like what the city would be like if all of a sudden a lot of people were gone.
Thank you for this thread.
posted by vrakatar at 7:35 PM on September 11 [16 favorites]
Still so dusty in here...
Will the debris ever clear?
Moments frozen in time.
(Probably a lot like JFK's assassination. I was about 8 months old so don't remember it). But I will never be able to forget that day. I wish I could...
Can't we all just get along?
posted by Windopaene at 8:00 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Will the debris ever clear?
Moments frozen in time.
(Probably a lot like JFK's assassination. I was about 8 months old so don't remember it). But I will never be able to forget that day. I wish I could...
Can't we all just get along?
posted by Windopaene at 8:00 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Adding this here instead of starting a new thread - Esquire's The Falling Man. It is a difficult read.
I was working for a US company in their London office on the day, came back from lunch early to be told a light aircraft had just hit the WTC - maybe a Cesna? Somehow my desk became the focal point on the floor as I managed to find a live video feed that didn't keep cutting out. One of my colleagues lost her husband in one of the tower collapses, I don't remember which, just that she got to see it happen from 3,500 miles away.
posted by Molesome at 3:34 AM on September 12 [4 favorites]
I was working for a US company in their London office on the day, came back from lunch early to be told a light aircraft had just hit the WTC - maybe a Cesna? Somehow my desk became the focal point on the floor as I managed to find a live video feed that didn't keep cutting out. One of my colleagues lost her husband in one of the tower collapses, I don't remember which, just that she got to see it happen from 3,500 miles away.
posted by Molesome at 3:34 AM on September 12 [4 favorites]
I haven't had many conversations about feelings about that day; threads like these, though, are a place to share stories. And I read everyone's tales each time as though they're new, even though I think some of us have shared before and will again.
Hugs to everyone: this will be a tender spot for some -- and an open wound for others -- until we die.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:42 AM on September 12 [4 favorites]
Hugs to everyone: this will be a tender spot for some -- and an open wound for others -- until we die.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:42 AM on September 12 [4 favorites]
I was working in Weehawken, across the river, at the time. I got into the building, got breakfast, went upstairs, and saw my manager, and said hi.
His response: "A plane hit the Twin Towers."
What? What?
I put my breakfast down and heard a commotion. In my manager's manager's office, which overlooked the Hudson, a bunch of people were in there. I poked my head in, but it was too packed, so I went back to my cube, turned on my computer, and ate my breakfast. The machine boots up, and then brings up IE and Y! Messenger.
I immediately start getting pinged by a dozen people, just windows popping up. Rather than logging right into the ticketing system, I pop open CNN's page. Then suddenly I hear a scream and a yell of "OH MY GOD!".
It was 9:03 AM. The second plane has just hit.
I give up on tickets for now. I set a message on Y! Messenger of "I am okay; I don't work in NYC directly." Then I copy-paste it into the windows and close them. I open up multiple IE windows: one for the corporate benefits hotel site, one for CNN, and one for WNYC. Most of my co-workers live in the Bronx or Queens or Brooklyn, and I don't think they'll make it home tonight.
Another Y!M window pops up. It is from a co-worker at 7 WTC, asking me if we have hoteling cubes in my building, because some of his people may need an alternate work site; I tell him I'll get back to him, and he gives me a hotmail account to mail him on because he may not be able to get the work mail remotely. Gotcha.
A text from a then-friend who is now my brother-in-law. He can't reach his mother in North Dakota; can I do something? I work some magic involving internal lines to California and back out again, reaching her and telling her he's nowhere near things, he's safe. She thanks me. I text him, and he thanks me too.
My manager's manager, who would in a few years become my mentor and one of the best people I've ever worked with, comes to me to ask me what I know. I point to the painfully slow CNN page, and he nods. I then point to the hotel page, and he takes a deep breath and thanks me. I pause, turn, open another window, and pull up car rental sites, he chuckles grimly, then reaches into his pocket and hands me his corporate AmEx, telling me to grab what I can. He lives in Staten Island. I can't find out if those bridges are closed too, but I reserve a block of rooms.
I work. It takes my mind off things.
One of my coworkers who lives in Sparta, NJ, comes to me and says that he's leaving. He's an EMT; they've called him in. I wish him good luck, and he heads out. I have my headphones on and am listening to music because I can't hear the people crying around me. I am focusing on work, on helping people, because it's something I can do.
Car rentals get set up. People leave for hotels. Eventually, there is me there.
My manager's manager comes to me and says, "You're still here? Go home." It hadn't occurred to me. I shut things down, get my bag, walk outside. Off to my left, I can see the plume of smoke and what-was-the-Twin-Towers and their contents, looking like it's going over Manhattan. I just walk.
Public transit is a disaster. I walk from the building to the Hoboken Terminal, where they are loading trains and sending them out on no particular schedule. Along the way, I get cups of water at no charge from restaurants there, because they set up water stands. They also have chairs outside in case you need to sit down. I realize I skipped lunch, and at a pizza place ask if the oven is on, and if so can I buy a couple cheese slices. The guy tries not to take my money but I insist.
I get home finally. I turn on the TV and the computer in my room. My parents have left me messages they are going to my brother and sister-in-law's.
I am home alone. I make something from the freezer, and spend time trying not to fall down. Eventually I sleep.
posted by mephron at 7:34 AM on September 12 [11 favorites]
His response: "A plane hit the Twin Towers."
What? What?
I put my breakfast down and heard a commotion. In my manager's manager's office, which overlooked the Hudson, a bunch of people were in there. I poked my head in, but it was too packed, so I went back to my cube, turned on my computer, and ate my breakfast. The machine boots up, and then brings up IE and Y! Messenger.
I immediately start getting pinged by a dozen people, just windows popping up. Rather than logging right into the ticketing system, I pop open CNN's page. Then suddenly I hear a scream and a yell of "OH MY GOD!".
It was 9:03 AM. The second plane has just hit.
I give up on tickets for now. I set a message on Y! Messenger of "I am okay; I don't work in NYC directly." Then I copy-paste it into the windows and close them. I open up multiple IE windows: one for the corporate benefits hotel site, one for CNN, and one for WNYC. Most of my co-workers live in the Bronx or Queens or Brooklyn, and I don't think they'll make it home tonight.
Another Y!M window pops up. It is from a co-worker at 7 WTC, asking me if we have hoteling cubes in my building, because some of his people may need an alternate work site; I tell him I'll get back to him, and he gives me a hotmail account to mail him on because he may not be able to get the work mail remotely. Gotcha.
A text from a then-friend who is now my brother-in-law. He can't reach his mother in North Dakota; can I do something? I work some magic involving internal lines to California and back out again, reaching her and telling her he's nowhere near things, he's safe. She thanks me. I text him, and he thanks me too.
My manager's manager, who would in a few years become my mentor and one of the best people I've ever worked with, comes to me to ask me what I know. I point to the painfully slow CNN page, and he nods. I then point to the hotel page, and he takes a deep breath and thanks me. I pause, turn, open another window, and pull up car rental sites, he chuckles grimly, then reaches into his pocket and hands me his corporate AmEx, telling me to grab what I can. He lives in Staten Island. I can't find out if those bridges are closed too, but I reserve a block of rooms.
I work. It takes my mind off things.
One of my coworkers who lives in Sparta, NJ, comes to me and says that he's leaving. He's an EMT; they've called him in. I wish him good luck, and he heads out. I have my headphones on and am listening to music because I can't hear the people crying around me. I am focusing on work, on helping people, because it's something I can do.
Car rentals get set up. People leave for hotels. Eventually, there is me there.
My manager's manager comes to me and says, "You're still here? Go home." It hadn't occurred to me. I shut things down, get my bag, walk outside. Off to my left, I can see the plume of smoke and what-was-the-Twin-Towers and their contents, looking like it's going over Manhattan. I just walk.
Public transit is a disaster. I walk from the building to the Hoboken Terminal, where they are loading trains and sending them out on no particular schedule. Along the way, I get cups of water at no charge from restaurants there, because they set up water stands. They also have chairs outside in case you need to sit down. I realize I skipped lunch, and at a pizza place ask if the oven is on, and if so can I buy a couple cheese slices. The guy tries not to take my money but I insist.
I get home finally. I turn on the TV and the computer in my room. My parents have left me messages they are going to my brother and sister-in-law's.
I am home alone. I make something from the freezer, and spend time trying not to fall down. Eventually I sleep.
posted by mephron at 7:34 AM on September 12 [11 favorites]
At Least Two Saudi Officials May Have Deliberately Assisted 9/11 Hijackers, New Evidence Suggests (ProPublica)
posted by credulous at 4:37 PM on September 12
posted by credulous at 4:37 PM on September 12
I had just gotten a real job and stumbled into work like 30 minutes earlier. A coworker had a tv in her car - we went down to watch on that after the first hit. So we watched on tv in a minivan, and then went back to work.
Very sad.
My rooommate was in El Paso TX, for work - stuck there for a week.
My brother had joined the Marines Reserve in late July for some extra bucks while in college. He ultimately did 3 tours in Iraq.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:56 AM on September 13
Very sad.
My rooommate was in El Paso TX, for work - stuck there for a week.
My brother had joined the Marines Reserve in late July for some extra bucks while in college. He ultimately did 3 tours in Iraq.
posted by The_Vegetables at 11:56 AM on September 13
« Older She's gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club | Exploration of an abandoned Texas Mall Newer »
. × 2977 at the WTC
. × hundreds of thousands in the wars that followed.
posted by lalochezia at 7:12 AM on September 11 [34 favorites]