Living in New York City on September 11, 2001
The morning of September 11, 2001 was like any other. At the time, we were living in Queens County, right across the East River with a beautiful view of Manhattan and the World Trade Center in particular. Especially from my sons school, which was right by the river. School had just stared, it was his first year of high school and about a 10-mile drive from our house, but I drove him in that morning and came home to plan my day.
I was on the phone with a friend when the first plane hit the World Trade Center She saw it on the TV and I immediately turned mine on. My thought was of when a B 52 struck the Empire State Building during WWII, but that was in foggy weather, and this day was a beautiful bright clear fall day. I think we all thought of an attack, but just did not want to admit it to ourselves, but when the second plane hit the other World Trade Center tower, there was no doubt left in anyone’s mind that we were under attack.
It was strange, because it felt like everything was going in slow motion. And then everyone tried to think of what to do. Should we go and take the children out of school? It seemed like we all needed to be together in one place and that was my neighbor’s house. One neighbor was up set because he could not contact this wife , who worked at the World Trade Center. She finally was a lot to get through and let us know she was OK.
As we watched the TV together, we started to form plans. The news came through that the bridges were closed and the trains and busses stopped. There was no way to get into or out of Manhattan. And the sudden silence. Living right in between two major airports, we were used to the sound of commercial jets over head all day long. And now there were none Then the sound of a lone fighter jet screaming overhead. And then the silence again. And the battle ships appearing in the harbor and the rivers. Being a port city, it was normal for the fleet to be in, either for a special like Fleet Week in the spring, or for shore leave, but this time they meant business. The guns were loaded and ready for action.
They say the human mind cannot comprehend tragedy at such a level as the World Trade Center attacks. The mind just does not believe things like this can happen. After all, we not only had the attack in New York, but also in Washington, D.C. and then there was the plane brought down in the field in Pennsylvania. It was incomprehensible.
After a couple of hours I decided to go to my son’s school I had called and they said everyone was okay, but I just wanted to be there and to get there I had to use the main road that leads to the 59th Street bridge. The bridge was closed. Would there be traffic all over the place? Would it be just one big traffic jam, making it impossible to get there? Any student who could not get home would be kept in the school overnight, but no one wanted that unless it was absolutely necessary. As luck would have it, there was practically no traffic. The NYPD had done their job well. I think this was when it really hit me. When you drive west on Queens Blvd. toward Manhattan, you naturally got a good view of the World Trade Center , but with an optical illusion. You are not driving directly at the east side of Manhattan. The Island bends a bit toward the west so when you look at it the Empire State Building which is at 34th Street appears to the left or south of the World Trade Center, when in reality, if you were looking at Manhattan straight on, it would be to the right or north of the World Trade Center.. That every morning, when I made that drive to take my son to school, I laughed at the illusion and explained it to him Now I had to make a second trip on the same road and the towers were gone. All I could see, between the Empire state building and the other skyscrapers to the north was a big hole filled with this God awful mass of gray/white smoke. It looked like someone who had been hit in the mouth and had two middle teeth knocked out.
I picked up my son and decided to take the long way home, down the back roads, not only to avoid any traffic, but to spare him the site. Needless to say, we had the TV on constantly. There was only one channel working, because the antennas were on top of the World Trade Center, Only the CBS Station had one on the Empire State building . As well as the World Trade Center, so for days that was our only contact. Cell phones were out, ATMS were not working, Very few of them anyway.
They say that everyone in New York either knew someone who was killed in the World trade Center or knew someone who knew someone. It turns out I knew 1 person, and knew indirectly of two others.
I knew a young man from our neighborhood, Stephen Hoffman I knew Stephen because half his family had once worked for me, when they were teenagers. And one of the teachers from my sons junior high lost a brother. And then there was a young man form our volunteer ambulance corps. The ambulances went over as soon as they could, but he was not on duty that day. He was working and as it happens, he was delivering some documents downtown. When he heard what happened, he called his boss and told him he was not coming back to work, that he was needed there. He never made it out. He was all of 19 years old.
When I think back, I think of two things. I think of the survivors, I think of the woman who could not walk down the stairs and of the people who literally carried her out I think of the blind man whose dog led him to safety. I think of the children who were in schools in the area and the brave teachers who led them away. One of them took them to her own home until they could contact the parents. I wonder what the future is for theses children, with all the talk of sicknesses just showing up now, years later, in the adults that were at the site. Will this affect their health in the future? I think if my cousin’s son, who was able to make it to the river and catch a water taxi home. I think of the mayor, who along with his staff, was almost trapped in the underground emergency bunker I think of a neighbor, a nurse at Bellview Hospital, who worked extra shifts waiting for the bodies that did not come.
I remember those who did not make it out, The three I mentioned above, Father Judge, the Fire Dept. chaplain who was one of the first to respond, and one of the first carried out. The volunteers, who did not have to be there, but were there because that was the way they were. The police and firemen, who did not have to go in, they also volunteered. I think of all the everyday World Trade Center Workers who went to work that day like they did every other day, who had plans for dinner with the family that evening or maybe a night out in the city. I think of the World Trade Center workers, who for one reason or another did not come in that day, or got there late and were spared. I think of the people in Washington who went through the same thing we did I have relatives there, one of whom works for the Government. And of the brave people on the Pennsylvania Plane. Can you imagine the courage it took to do what they did?
Did the attacks in New York and Washington and plane that was bought down in Pennsylvania change us? Oh yes, but not in the way it was intended. It did not divide us. It bought us together. It did not make us weaker. It made us stronger. I remember the first night they light the twin towers of light I remember all of the neighbors, yes even the Muslim ones, sanding together, out in the street, all looking to the west waiting for the light at the World Trade Center.
