Part 1: Remembering the Day—This post will be about how I heard about the attacks, and what I remember feeling and thinking that day.
Part 2: Remembering the Aftermath—This post will be about what I remember of the spirit of our country in the weeks after the attack. I will also share a couple of survival stories from that day.
Part 3: Remembering My Visit to New York—This post will be about my trip to New York six weeks after the attacks.
Part 4: Remembering the Spirit—I do not want to give a description for this one. You’ll just have to wait to read it.
So, here is part one of my September 11th blog.
God Bless America
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Tomorrow marks the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001. It’s hard to believe that 10 years have passed since the day when we witnessed the shocking attacks that claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on four airplanes.
They say that you will always remember what you were doing when a shocking tragedy occurs. I can remember using the mimeograph machine in the school office at my grammar school when I heard about the space shuttle Challenger blowing up, and I can remember being sick with food poisoning in a hotel room in New York City when I heard that Princess Diana died.
On September 11, 2001, I was in my office scanning the radio stations to find some tunes when I heard the phrase “an airplane has crashed into the World Trade Center.” I quickly scanned back to hear what was going on, and oddly enough, the station was actually the local station that aired the Howard Stern Show at the time. Yes, I heard about the 9/11 attacks on the Howard Stern Show of all places! I wound up staying with the station because they actually were doing an excellent job of reporting the events of that day with a raw emotion that you don’t get from a seasoned reporter. Howard and his crew were witnesses to the events just like all of us, and the spoke with a frankness and emotion that you didn’t get from the seasoned newscasters.
When I heard the news, I wound up calling my co-worker Abbi to tell her about the plane crashing. She was a bit confused at first when I told her, as she thought I was referring to the World Trade Center in Boston, which is only a couple of miles across the harbor from Logan Airport. At the time of that conversation, only one plane had struck, so we assumed it was a plane that ran into a mechanical problem.
As we listened to the news, and heard about the other planes crashing, we were shocked to the core to realize that such a major terrorist attack was happening on U.S. soil. The news circulated quickly around the office, and everyone was shocked and saddened by the news. I remember being really angry by the news. How could this happen here, in the U.S.? This kind of stuff wasn’t supposed to happen here.
I remember the tension and fear in my office that morning. We were all sad, confused, and angry. Over the next hour as we heard about each plane crashing, we became more and more concerned. I think everyone was thinking: Would there be more attacks and could there be attacks in our city of Boston? Everyone really wanted to get home to be with their families.
We were all shocked when we heard that another plane had hit the Pentagon. It was frightening to think that the building that held the headquarters of the Department of Defense was attacked. I couldn’t help but think how tense it must have been in that building that morning. The brave men and woman in that building must have been working out what needed to be done to protect our country after the attacks on the World Trade Center when the plane crashed into that building.
Perhaps some of the most amazing and brave men and woman were the ones who were on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. It was rumored that plane was headed towards the White House, or the Capitol Building, but some brave souls had something else in mind. The stood up to the terrorists, and fought back. Forty people perished in that plane on September 11th, but if they didn’t stand up to the terrorists, who knows how many more lives would have been lost that day. The passengers on that plane are heroes for all of us.
At some point that morning, my office, like so many offices in the city of Boston and across the country closed. It was a very confusing time with all of the news and misinformation surrounding the attacks. There was much talk about other planes that could have been overtaken by terrorists, or even attacks on the ground in some of our country’s major cities. Most offices closed that morning because no one wanted to be the employer that kept their employees working if there was going to be another attack.
With all of the rumors swirling around regarding the attacks, and rumors that there could be other targets, I didn’t really want to get on the subway that day. One of my co-workers, Lyra, lived in the same city as I did, and she didn’t really want to get on the subway either. We decided that we would walk three miles to a subway station where we could get a bus home.
When Lyra and I got outside, we soon realized that we weren’t the only ones trying to get home. The traffic on the streets of Boston was at a standstill. It was worse than I ever recalled seeing. I don’t remember ever seeing traffic on the side streets backed up even at the start of a holiday weekend. People seemed a lot more patient than they usually are when they are stuck in the traffic--no one was beeping their horn, or shouting obscenities at other drivers to get moving. Drivers seemed to realize that everyone was in a hurry that day, and everyone had the same important purpose--to get home to their families.
I was very grateful to have someone to walk with that day. I was scared and sad, and it was nice to have company on the journey to discuss the events with, and express my fears and concerns. I recall how quiet the streets were despite the traffic. The skies seemed a bit eerie because the commercial and private planes were grounded. It was very bizarre to be walking parallel to one of the major flight paths used by planes taking off from Logan Airport, and not seeing or hearing any planes. The only planes that we saw on our walk were a few fighter jets. Although the fighter jets should have been a comfort in a time of extreme turmoil and terror in our country, they made me even more nervous.
Lyra and I soon made it to the subway station, and caught buses home. I wound up taking a bus that dropped me off in the center of my city, and walked home from there. I was so grateful to be home with my parents, and safe in my home.
Like every other American, my television was tuned into the coverage of the events. As much as the images disturbed and shocked me, I couldn’t turn away from the television. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched the World Trade Center towers burn, and eventually collapse. It was just unfathomable that a skyscraper could collapse and compact like it was made out of cards.
Even more shocking was hearing the stories of people who were trapped above the point of impact with no way to get out of the building. Some of them decided to take their fate into their own hands and jump out of the building rather than wait for the fire to reach them, or perhaps help to reach them. I can’t imagine what their fear must like to make that choice in this situation.
A few years before the attacks, I went to observation deck the World Trade Center during a trip to New York, and it was so strange to think that the building that had awed me so much was now gone. I had always recommended a trip to the observation deck to people on their trips to New York because I thought the view was more breathtaking than the view from the Empire State Building. The observation deck had benches that you could sit in and let your feet swing freely over some glass windows. I sat in one of those benches for a long time, just looking at the Statue of Liberty. It was truly a beautiful sight to take in.
And on September 11th, it hit me that no one else would be able to go to the top of that building and look at the Statue of Liberty. No one would be able to walk to the windows on the opposite side and see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. No man would take his girlfriend to the observation deck and propose. No one could look out those windows at Ellis Island and remember that their ancestors once passed through there on their journey to the United States.
I had also toured the Pentagon a few years before the attacks. The Pentagon is truly a remarkable building. It is just massive, and I couldn’t help but marvel at the design. It was interesting to see the five rings within the Pentagon, and also the shopping area built right in as a convenience for the employees. Visiting the Pentagon was my favorite part of my first visit to Washington, D.C.
And on September 11, 2001, the twin towers were no more. The Pentagon suffered major damage. Four planes had crashed. And the lives and spirits of every American would be changed forever.
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