Remembering 9/11

[DJ Spanky]

It's been 20 years since the towers fell and dealt a devastating blow to America's sense of invulnerability. Much has changed since then, but like Pearl Harbor, a whole generation will never forget it. We mourn still those lost to that attack and mark that day every year when it comes around on the calendar. Please join with the staff of Rivals in commemorating that horrific loss and sharing your memories of that terrible day.

 

[hoquat63]

I was at work - when the news hit, my boss left immediately to be with his daughter, his son in law had a job interview at WTC that day and no one knew his status. Fortunately he was still outside when the planes hit and managed to get back home safe and sound. Knew a few people who lost relatives, but no one that I knew directly died. Office next to ours had a TV that we could watch, but the only station they could get was Spanish station.

 

[colbert17]

Bush at the World Series was one of the most thrilling things I remember ever.

 

[patk89]

Was at work in midtown. Walked down to Union Square to meet a friend who worked on Wall Street and was really shaken up. Didn't get back to Hoboken until that night. Real sad scene with families waiting for loved ones to arrive, some who never made it. Went down to the waterfront the next morning seeing the Towers still smoldering. Images that I'll never forget.

 

[mdk01]

Was at my office and had Imus on. The first report was a plane had flown into the WTC. I immediately thought of my grandfather, who was at work on a foggy day in 1945 in the Empire State Building when an Army B-25 crashed into it. And then the second plane hit it it was a different world. I remember the silent panic walking on the street because while few worked in the WTC a whole lot of people had moms, dads and spouses who took PATH into the WTC station.

The next morning was the most haunting, with a dash of sardonic humor. My office overlooked a NJ Transit parking lot for trains to Hoboken. Nothing was running, but when I looked over to the lot there were still 8-9 cars which obviously been there overnight. The humor came when I realized that while normally the town parking authority would have been holding a ticker tape parade writing tickets for those cars there wasn't an officer within half a mile of that lot.

 

[JMORC2003]

Was at RU living on Livingston. I went out the night before so skipped my early class. I remember being on the bus to college Ave hearing rumblings about what was unfolding and assumed it was an accident. I got to work and everyone was huddled around a radio and someone looked up and said “we’re under attack”. I remember hearing the fighter jets fly overhead.

seems both not real and very real at the same time.

 

[Phi_1055]

Worked across the street in the World Financial Center and my 38th floor office looked directly at the WTC. The North tower collapsed into my building. Luckily on 9/10 my 8:00 AM meeting scheduled for 9/11 was pushed back one day. I wasn’t there yet on 9/11 and as soon as the first plane hit I headed for the first train out of Hoboken to my town. (I was there for the first WTC bombing and a nearby office building bombing in Buenos Aires in ‘94. I wasn’t about to hang around downtown to wait to see if the first plane was an accident or terrorist attack).

 

[RUhasarrived]

On Monday Sept.10th,the business section of the NY Daily News had this for a headline:

SKY'S THE LIMIT FOR WTC RETAILING

The story told of a meeting atop the WTC the previous Thursday of The Port Authority.At the meeting were the new owner of the complex,Larry Silverstein,and Governors George Pataki of NY and Donald Di Francesco of NJ(known as Donny D to the boys on Bloomfield Ave.)

Sadly,I don't have the paper.I threw it out in the recycling on the morning of the 11th.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Driving into work that September 11th, I switched to WPLJ just as I was about to get on 287 South in Riverdale. Heard Scott and Todd talking about the first plane hitting the building. As I went up the big hill on southbound 287, I was able to look to the left at the NY skyline and see the pillar of smoke reaching to the heavens from the first tower. A couple of minutes later I heard Todd say: "There's another plane."