Remembering 9/11: My recollection of that fateful day
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| World Trade Center (Twin Towers), New York City |
9/11 (September 11th) 2001 would forever be remembered as a day that would change my life. It was what triggered my first inkling to want to live somewhere else. It kickstarted a wholesale change to my life in more ways than one.
Within the next two years, my wife and I would leave New York City for Oahu, Hawaii. Two years after that, that move would eventually land us back on the East Coast where we settled for the next 14 years or so until our early retirement in August of 2020.
In this post, I’d like to share with you my experiences of 9/11.
I remember 9/11 because it was such a beautiful day. Skies were blue and the heat of the summer was slowly being replaced by cooling breezes coming over the East River. I felt better than most days because of how nice that day started.
I took the usual #4 train to get off at Bowling Green station in lower Manhattan. I was listening to music on my headphones as usual. I knew something was amiss right when I got to Wall Street station, which was one stop before my Bowling Green station.
There were some commotion inside the train. Few riders were talking excitedly among themselves. I turned off my music and asked someone what was going on. One of my fellow riders said there was an accident at the World Trade Center. He had heard a small plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. At first, I didn’t think much of it. A typical jaded New Yorker, I thought ‘Well, that was exciting. It’s probably no big deal’, and I went back to my music.
Things got interesting when I got off at the Bowling Green station. There were more excited people talking outside Broadway, looking up towards the Twin Towers. I followed their gaze and saw what they were seeing. Immediately I saw it was no small plane that hit the Twin Towers. There was smoke coming up from the top of one of the towers. A small plane wouldn’t have made a dent on the tower...
I got to my workplace one block away from the subway station. I saw everyone at work was glued to the tv. I joined them to watch the news.
Right around that time, the calls were starting to come in at a frantic pace! What I heard from one of the owners of the company was that our company had been located at one of the Twin Towers on about 80th floor, up until the previous year!
There were family, friends, colleagues who were calling in to make sure we were ok. Most still thought our company was located in Twin Towers. Callers would complain they couldn’t get the calls to go through. It was an absolute pandemonium.
Few minutes into us watching the news, we saw the second plane hit. This time we got to see it in real time what hit the second Twin Towers. It was a commercial airliner and not a small plane. All of us were aghast at the sight. We stepped out to Broadway to see if we can make some sense out of the situation.
The next hour or so would be stuck on watching the news. That morning, news kept reporting there may be multiple attacks on the United States that day. This scared us more than anything. The thought of the unknown is always frightening…
We really thought other places in New York City would be hit next: Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Chrysler Building, etc. None of us, not the owners, or the workers, did any work. Company was a small start up that had 2 owners and 5 employees at the time.
When the first Twin Towers came down, we thought an earthquake had hit lower Manhattan. The building shook for few seconds after the initial sonic blast. It was a low rumble that just got louder and louder. Within few seconds of that sonic blast, we saw outside the windows and saw the day had turned to night.
It was as if a solar eclipse had happened. There were gray dust that covered the windows, and we couldn’t see anything. It felt like being in the middle of a tornado or a hurricane, with all kinds of debris just flying by.
We saw the news and it reported what we heard. Never in a million years did I think the Twin Towers could collapse. I had visited the Twin Towers the prior week to take care of business from a Continental Airlines office located inside one of the Twin Towers. My wife and I had gone on dates on the observation deck...The way the Twin Towers looked with those tough looking steel beams covering the entire length of the building, I thought no way it could be brought down by an airplane...
By this time, the owners of the company let everyone know the company will be closed for business until we knew more about what’s happened. We could either stay there or go home. I chose to go to where my wife worked, near 35th Street where the Empire State Building was located.
Due to the dust and gray soot covering everything, I decided to cover my mouth and try to walk up to 35th Street. I hadn’t walked 2 minutes when I heard the second low rumble followed by another crash. By then, I knew what the rumble meant…
As soon as I saw dust coming towards my way, I ran back towards the office. I remember helping a fellow office worker who ran alongside me to try to make it back to our office building. We made it back safely before the dust and gray soot covered the entire length of Broadway in front of our office building.
I was bummed... I went back to our office and waited until dust settled somewhat.
I headed back out, but immediately I was stopped going north on Broadway by NYPD (New York Police Department) and NYFD (New York Fire Department). They were routing everyone to detour to east of Broadway, as Broadway would be closed to traffic. I started walking east.
As I was walking north, I saw people walk like zombies toward different bridges leaving the city. There were people covered in soot and debris, stunned by what had happened. The scene from the lower Manhattan that day was something out of a movie.
There was smoke and dust everywhere hindering vision. A middle aged lady was crying right in the middle of the street. Meanwhile, emergency vehicles were moving at frenetic pace up and down the streets of lower Manhattan.
The mass exodus of people started on Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. Hundreds, if not thousands were trying to get home as all trains and car services had come to a standstill in lower Manhattan. This exodus of people walking over the bridges would be the most indelible image for me that day.
I kept pace as best I could. There were Red Cross trucks out and about handing out bottled water and face masks to everyone. I took both and kept walking. I could still see the scene in my head clearly... I wore my favorite long sleeve dress shirt and khaki pants, and they were all covered in soot. I walked what seemed like about 5 miles as I couldn’t take the shortest route north. I remember doing lots of crisscrossing different avenues and streets to get to 35th Street.
Along the way, I heard the high pitched shriek of fighter jet planes roaming the skies above Manhattan. The jet sounds had started earlier in the day, but I really heard and felt the sound and the sonic boom created by the jets. It felt like Manhattan was in a war zone…
I got to my wife’s office at around 1 p.m. We hugged and I cleaned off best I could. We decided, without hesitation, to leave immediately. There were too many unknowns that day. We didn’t know if Empire State Building was the next target...
Luckily, the subways in midtown were running on limited schedule. We hopped aboard the F train to go to our home in Queens. While waiting for the train, my wife mentioned that she saw one of the planes that morning while walking to the office. She thought odd that a commercial airliner would fly so low in Manhattan. She heard an unmistakable whoosh of a airplane’s jets but like I did in the subway, didn’t think much of it…
We made it home safely within 40 minutes. I immediately took a shower and threw my clothes into the wash bin. We took deep breaths and called everyone to let them know we made it back home ok.
We couldn’t take our eyes off of the television the rest of the day and the next several days…
The office was indeed closed until the following Monday as trains were not running in lower Manhattan.
When I went back that Monday, Bowling Green station had changed. National Guard and NYPD were on guard EVERYWHERE! National Guard had machine guns tucked tight, ready for action. There were armored vehicles lined up along Broadway. I still saw smoke coming out of the ruins of the World Trade Center for next several weeks...
On a rainy/damp day, I was going to work. I remember the smell, what smelled like foul garbage smell, coming from the Wall Street station. I could guess at what that might have been. It was a smell of something rotting, burning...I’ll never forget that smell...
My colleague, who is from Israel, went back to Israel after 9/11. He said he felt safer there than in New York City...I couldn’t disagree at the time...
Still to this day, 9/11 stirs some forgotten emotions deep inside of me. I still can’t see myself going to visit the newly built World Trade Center and the memorial museum. New York City forever changed that day for millions and I would be one of them...
One of the biggest reasons why we moved out of New York City is because of 9/11. We truly didn’t feel safe living and working in the city. We still can’t see ourselves visiting tall buildings or wanting to work inside a tall building...
In 2003, we decided to move to Oahu, Hawaii. It felt bittersweet to leave the city as it’s where we grew up, got married, and made a life. We were leaving behind our family and friends.
Looking back, we’re glad we made the change. If we hadn’t, who knows whether we can retire early when we did at ages 48 and 51 or not. Who knows how life would’ve been?
If nothing else, we have good stories to tell. Of living through 9/11, moving to Hawaii, moving back to the east coast, then retiring early recently.
I’d like to dedicate this post to all those who have lost their lives that fateful day. I also would like to acknowledge all the emergency personnel, the military personnel, and anyone else that were in the city helping out after this tragedy.
We thank you for reading.
Jake
Wandering Money Pig
Please check out our YouTube channel ‘Wandering Money Pig’ showcasing our travels and our Pomeranian dog! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3kl9f4W9sfNG5h1l-x6nH
