The Westchester County airport waiting room was its claustrophobic self on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Virtually nowhere to sit, my colleague and I had to stand while waiting for our flight to Boston when his cell phone rang.
“A plane just hit the World Trade Center,” he said. The call came from Scott Meyer, general manager of NYTimes.com. I was COO of New York Times Digital at the time and had access to the latest news. At first, the reports were that a small plane had hit one of the towers. The news got worse very quickly after that. My colleague and I soon gave up on the idea we were flying anywhere that day, and both tried to get back to our office in Midtown. Since we had our cars at the airport, we took off – but in separate directions.
He went down the Hutchinson Parkway. I got as far as the Bronx on I-95 before hitting gridlock. It was a scene out of Blade Runner. EMTs and fire trucks were everywhere, blaring their sirens. Luckily, I was able to turn around and head back to Connecticut.
My first stop was Eastern Middle School in Riverside where I checked in on my sixth grader. I found him in the cafeteria and was relieved to see that the school was locked down and the students appeared safe.
Next, I drove to Greenwich Point.
There, on one of the clearest days of the year, I could see the two horizontal plumes of smoke extending from the burning towers to the end of Long Island – or as far as the eyes could see to the horizon. I was struck by how intact the plumes remained, instead of dispersing into the atmosphere as one might expect of smoke.
Finally, I went home to Riverside where I witnessed the day’s calamity on TV – the collapse of the towers, the attacks on the Pentagon and the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania.
I heard that President Bush was on a plane, and for the only time in my life, I feared for the safety of Dick Cheney.
The rest of the day was a blur. The extent of the attack was unclear. Fear of the unknown was the worst.
In the days following, I saw Rudy Giuliani at his best, the country rallying around the President and a national resolve to seek and hunt down the enemy.
That’s my story. Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001?
I was in Citigroup Center. After getting thrown out of there because it was a target, went to my friend’s condo downtown – walked – and watched the towers from his roof. This after, thankfully, getting a hold of my wife on the phone. Finally found out Grand Central was open and I eventually got home to Greenwich. It was an awful day. Some people didn’t come back to work in Citigroup Center for over a month. Citibank was generous in letting people too scared to come in, stay home.
- John
Comment by bowman — September 10th, 2009 @ 10:34 pm