My story is not particularly remarkable. I still have a hard time looking back on that day, I still have a hard time watching repeated coverage. This morning I had to turn away from TV coverage & the radio coverage. Thank God for sports, I tuned into ESPN radio and was able to tune things out for a while. I am sure as shit not watching any “made for tv movie” about 9/11, I think that is just fucked up that ABC even runs such a thing.
Everything went very wrong that day, and it’s never seemed quite right since then to me.
I was consulting for two different companies at the time, one located at 1 west street,the other located across the street from the empire state building. My wife never knew which place I was going to be on any given day. I think that briefly her morning must have been much worse than mine, as I ended up working midtown. She could not get me right away and did not know where I was.
I came out one of the last PATH trains to run that morning to find people stopped on 6th Ave & 5th Ave looking downtown. I just kept going to work because I was late and this was NY and people like to gawk at stuff. It wasn’t until I got into the office that someone told me what was going on.
We all collectively watched a TV tuned to the local spanish station because we had no cable in the office & all of the broadcast stations had gone out. The TV sat in front of a window, behind the TV through the window was the Empire state building.
I stayed transfixed watching coverage, in spanish, as the towers fell. I did not try to leave until after 11. When I did walk downstairs, mmidtown was empty and everything was surreal. I walked towards the water to find a ferry, at the first cross street I came too I saw a an officer from some agency in full gear holding an automatic weapon, standing in the middle of an empty street in midtown. Midotwn.. empty of cars, armed personelle standing in the streets. Just further freaked me out.
I kept walking towards the water, and I ran into a woman with two young children. She was in tears. She was from Africa visiting relatives who lived in Jersey City, she needed to get back there, and did not know how. I told her to come with me, and I would help her get to the ferry. I helped her with her kids and we walked across town towards the water, being directed by various armed to the teeth agents/officers not to walk downtown.
We hit the ferry terminal and stood on a very long line as various pleasure cruise boats lined up to pick folks up and drop them in Weehawken. I spoke with an female officer trying to arrange the lines of people & asked her to please take the mother & kids ahead, which she did. It took about 45 minutes for me to board the boat.
All this time, me and others on line with me were trapped in midtown, and aside from TV coverage and smoke rising high above, never saw the sight directly. There was some low nervous chattering conversation on boat amongst people as we pulled away from the terminal. But as soon as we all had a clear view of the site as the ferry turned south, everyone shut up. Seeing it made it real, people began to cry.
I walked from Weehakwen to my brother’s place in downtown Jersey City. The streets of Weehawken, Hoboken and Jersey City were all empty of cars and eerie. I walked across the entrance of the Holland Tunnel to get to his house, and saw tons of ambulances lined up with no where to go.
I had just been through the World Trade Center the day before, I remember running into a friend of mine I had not seen for a while. I wondered about him. I wondered about one of my best friends, Andrew, who was from Oaklahoma City, had witnessed the bombings there, and now worked in a building next to the WTC. I did not get a hold of him until much later that day. I wondered about my coworkers at 1 west street, it was a small office and many folks there worked from home. I did not know who did or did not come in. I later found out that the secretary was the only one in the office that day, and she had one of the most horrific experiences I have ever heard in my life.
I wish I could say that I felt lucky to be alive, but I didn’t. I felt sad & angry. On days like today when I look back on it, I still feel sad & angry.
