9/11/01 Where were you?

I was in a physics lab in college. Since we were all the way in the basement, we were one of the last to be notified. Once I got out onto campus, there was a crowd of students outside our library just staring in disbelief at the NYC skyline. You could see the smoke and it was so unreal.

I was living in New Jersey at the time. I actually had a doctor's appointment that day and missed school. My doctor's office was in New York and my mom was driving me there. We knew something was going on since you could see this massive gray cloudy fog. They had all the tunnels and bridges leading in /out of the state blocked off. I remember that there was the biggest trafic jam before the Lincoln Tunnel, so nobody could get through.

We asked police officers,so they told us what happened. My mom and I picked up my sister from her school that day and we stayed glued to the tv, watching the footage of the plane crashing into the Towers.

I had just dropped my kids off at school and went back home.
There was a message on my answering machine.
It was my husband calling from the firehouse telling me to turn on the TV.
At first I thought he was going to be on the news because he had been at a big fire overnight.
How I wish that had been the case.
He stayed on the phone with me as we watched the towers burn.
At one point he said, "those structures are built to withstand impacts and fires..."
Not seconds later the first one collapsed...

when the first plane hit i was sitting at my desk at work in boston checking email. coworker walked by and said something going on in new york everyone's in the conference room watching tv. i walked over just in time to watch the second plane hit the tower. stunned, shocked, in complete disbelief of what i just say i stood there in the door way of the conference room just watching.

Sometime around 10:00 the owner told everyone to go home. I left at 11:00 terrified at the idea of having to get on the T (subway) and spend the next 30 minutes underground. I remember standing on the platform at south station thinking how eerily silent it was and just the thought of being underground with everything going on above ground. what if the terrorists attacked the T what would i do where would i hide how would i escape. everyone road in silence. you could hear a pin drop while the T was underground. the minute the T came through the tunnel and out on to the street everyone seemed to exhale at the same time.

College English Lit. class...

In college. Married. Oldest was 3 days away from his 1st b-day. The night before I had fallen asleep while watching the movie "Armageddon". My buddy called me to tell me to turn on the news and that "NY was under attack". At first I didn't believe him, but turned on the news anyways. Skipped some classes that day and was basically glued to the news the rest of the day...

I was a sophmore, in between classes in High school. We then went to our American History class, and watched the news the whole time. It was very shocking. Although I had no relatives who were affected, it was very scary and sad. Now that I am older, and I understand more, my heart goes out to ALL the victims and families. Especially the first responders, as I am in the Healthcare field. Such a sad tragic day. This has changed history and we will never forget. RIP!!! God bless America

I was exhausted after being up most of the night with my daughter who was a little over 7 weeks old. My best friend had called and yelled at me to turn on the tv. Of course the first thing I saw was the first tower smoking. At first I just thought it had caught fire until the newscaster said something about a plane. I hung up on my friend and ran downstairs and turned the tv on in the living room just as the second plane hit. I, like everyone else was so scared. A little later it was reported that the Pentagon was also hit. They were still unsure as to how many planes were unaccounted for. I just held my daughter and cried for a couple hours until it was time to go to work. Leaving her that day was one of the hardest things I've ever done. My heart goes out to everyone who was affected in a more first hand way. I can't being to imagine how hard continuing on has been for them.

The thing I rember first about that day was how clear the sky was, I had remember thinking that to myself as I walked out of the WTC at 7:45am. A crystal clear day always brings me back to that morning.y

I had a hangover actually because the Giants had played the night before so I dragged my self into the office when my buddy called from his window we could see the first building burning, we had no clue what was going on but we decided to get out off our building right away.

We went outside and walked to Battery Park (about 3 blocks away) watching the first tower burn someone said a plane hit the tower... what do you mean a plane... just then the second plane flew over our headns and I watched it fly right into the tower and the giant fireball shoot out of the building. every single person standing there said Holy *kitten*.. the entire builing flexed and I thought it was coming down right then so I took off running.

It was mayhem. I watched a woman get car jacked and people going crazy. I wanted out of the city and headed to the ferry. The doors were locked and the terminal was filling... crowded... when the ground shook, I did not know it at the time but the first tower came down. People started shoving and screaming and the doors to the boat finally opened. It was a sea of people fighting to the boat when I saw a woman get knocked down.. I yelled for people to be calm and I stood between her and the crowd until she got to her feet... as we got onto the boat the cloud of smoke covered us...

I did not even know the towers were gone until I landed in Staten Island... the rest of that day I spent trying to get home... which was an adventure in its self... including hitch hiking with a Hazmat crew..

Two days later I was working with the fire police and emts on making maps of ground zero trying to find where oil tanks, gas lines, electrical mains or any other potential dangers were as they searched. The people who went into those buildings to save others are the bravest people I could ever imagine.

I was in my fifth grade class. I remember the teacher turned on the TV and we all sat watching in shock. It was very unusual for my class to be that quiet. I live in Wyoming so it didn't really connect all that well for me that we were being attacked, it just felt very surreal.