Readers' memories of the Twin Towers
As I was leaving New York Harbor on a cruise ship July 19, 2001 I took the enclosed a picture. I am not a photographer but because this was a new ship it had very clean tinted stern windows which I believe added to the quality of this picture.
These recollections of Sept. 11, 2001, were submitted by Newsday readers.
"I was in the men's room when the building got rocked. I opened the door to heavy smoke to the left and flames shooting out the service elevator. I ran to my right to the stairs. For a split second I thought I might run in to the office to get my things. I was the only one in the office. It would have taken maybe 20 seconds, 20 seconds I wasn't going to chance.
As I started my descent down 45 flights, through smoke and dust, it felt like a lifetime. About 10 flights down someone mentioned that a plane hit the building. We all thought it was an accident and that the pilot must have had a heart attack. About five minutes later, the building shook again. We all thought it was the end, but it was the other plane hitting Tower Two.
On the 15th floor I saw the first fireman making his way up. When I asked what happened he said, "keep going." The look on his face said it all. There was a major problem in the building. More and more firemen were going up. Just about everyone told them not to go up, their reply was "It's my job."
At about the ninth floor the ceilings were cracking and the water pipes busted, spraying water on us. As I got down to the second floor I saw two police officers directing people out of the building. All I saw were people running, screaming and debris coming down. As I got down to the exit door on the concourse, two police officers kept repeating run for your lives and told us to get to the door that connected the bridge to the World Financial Center.
As I left the building to go to the financial center, at a full sprint, two bodies hit the ground to my left, poor souls who were trapped and chose to leap to their deaths.
After walking around downtown for an hour or two, I crossed the Williamsburg Bridge with a guy I knew from Ecco (a downtown restaurant) as the F-16's flew overhead. We made it to the J Train to Jamaica on the Long Island Rail Road and I got home around 5:30 p.m. I gave my wife and kids a big hug and we all shed a few tears.
I remember that evening when my wife told me she heard what happened. She had put the TV on and was watching the horror unfold with a few neighbors who came over to the house. She told me that when Tower Two came down she didn't even notice, she was in shock. She asked my daughter, Alexandra, who was three at the time, what building does daddy work in?" My daughter's reply was "Mommy, daddy's okay. His building has the pole on top of it." Until this day, she still occasionally asks me why I went to the right and not the left." --Nopepper
"I didn't know too much about the city or about the Twin Towers at the time, but I remember that day very clearly. Teachers were crying in the hallways and kids were going home early and no one knew why. It was when I got home and saw my dad at the bus stop along with everyone else's parents explaining what happened to the Towers in New York City." --knash3
"One of the most beautiful September mornings, as I drove to work, I was in awe of how beautifully the sun was shining & the amazingly blue sky. Little did we know what was in store for us. A short time later, I was in my office in Bethpage, NY actually on the phone when the line went dead. I had my radio on & heard that a plane had hit the WTC. At first I thought a little plane had hit the building. It was not until we heard that the Pentagon was hit that we realized something was very, very wrong. As people gathered in my office, you could feel and see the emotion on people's faces as the realization that we were under attack as a nation dawned on us. I didn't know at that point that my husband & I would know almost 18 people who were killed - some from my former jobs at IBM & Morgan Stanley; some were classmates from my grammar school, St. Aidans, in Williston Park; Some were from my husbands grammar school St. Catherine of Siena in Franklin Square & from his high school, Kellenberg Memorial. I cannot describe the panic & fear that engulfed us. The owner of the company closed the office after informing the 3,000 employees that we were at war. When people heard those words, we all started crying. It was a day and moment that we will never forget. God bless all those who died that day and the subsequent men and women who died fighting for us.--Maureen (Farrelly) Marsala & John Marsala Jr."--mmarsala918
"I was on the E train running a little late, the train started to go real slow and everyone wanted to kill the motorman for being slow.
At 42nd St the conductor annouced, Due to a police action at the WTC, we will be here for a while, we dont know how long, You are advised to walk to your destination.
I worked on 35th St so I got out and walked, A man came running out of a store and yelled they hit it. I got out my radio and I heard. I was lucky the E train continued to run that day."-- Howard Schoenfeld via Facebook.
"I was about to go into an elevator to go to class at college, I overheard what had happened. At first people thought that the plane crash was an accident. I was in midtown Manhattan. You could still see smoke looking downtown from 34th St. later that day."--Sarah Silverstein via Facebook.
"I was on my way to work in Garden City when my husband called me to tell me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center ...When I arrived at work, the second plane had also crashed... Then we heard about the Pentagon and we all knew we were under attack. Then came the news of the crash in Pennsylvania....I remember everyone crowded around a small television in the conference room and watched the live coverage ... Of course some of my coworkers had loved ones who worked there, I had a good friend there too and a cousin. I can't find words to describe our reaction as we watched that first tower fall ... and then the second. My boss closed the office at 11 a.m. and sent everyone home...."--Suzanne Plaia Bonczek via Facebook.
"I was at work in EAB in Garden city saw it on TV and I couldn't believe that this happened. Lost a friend there can believe it's 10 years already. May God bless them all."--Angela Acevedo via Facebook.
