Where were you on September 11, 2001?
Today is 9/11/2017. The following picture is from this afternoon.
© 2017 Steven Campbell
16 Years ago, We lost Thousands of Innocent Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, Brothers, Friends and Relatives.
16 Years ago, I heard an announcement over my High School's Loud Speaker that a "Plane" has hit one of the World Trade Center Towers. Nothing else. Or at least, I don't remember anything else having been said.
I lived outside of Manhattan, but my oldest brother just started working in the city. This was his first full week working in the city, after being in training in Atlanta for his first two weeks of his new job.
I was in a Math class at 8:46 AM.. The North Tower was hit by Flight 11, a Boeing 767.
I was still in my Math class at 9:03 AM.. The South Tower was hit by Flight 175, a Boeing 767.
No further announcements happened after the first one, I believe that the announcement happened around 8:55 AM. Remember, Cell Phones were extremely rare in these days, and you definitely didn't have the Internet on it.
We didn't know what was happening, but we knew that something was going on. Kids kept getting individually pulled out of classrooms. These are my classmates who have parents and siblings that work downtown, or for the FDNY, or the NYPD.
My first interaction with the "outside world" was when I arrived to my computer class around 10 AM. The South Tower collapsed, minutes before I was able to navigate to CNN on my web browser.
News was slow to update these days, especially on the internet, which was far from their first priority. There were no "live" updates. No one did any real class work during this period. We were all in shock and trying to understand what had just happened.
I learned that the North Tower collapsed after my mom picked me up from school early, before lunchtime. Although I was in my computer class when the Tower fell, the news websites just weren't updating that quickly. I think that we were all in too much shock to really recognize and understand what was happening.
The entire area south of Canal Street on the island of Manhattan was ordered to be evacuated at 11:00 AM. Sometime around this point, my brother, who was thankfully working in midtown, several miles north of the terror and mayhem, was instructed that his company was closing their New York Offices.
Along with countless others, he began his walk north to the George Washington Bridge to try making his way home. More than a 5 mile walk, in business attire.
Cell Phone service on most of the island was blocked/shut off for non-emergency personnel earlier in the day, so he was completely unable to contact anyone about his well-being or whereabouts until he made it to the New Jersey side of the bridge.
Many of my friends lost friends and family on that day. I will never forget watching the news all day and listening to the broadcasters' silence from their lack of being able to say anything while we all watched footage of the towers falling, over and over and over again. Until we were then watching live footage of the rubble and first responders trying to find survivors.
For the weeks, and months, following the towers' collapse, we watched the rescue attempts, hoping and praying that it wasn't too late to find more survivors. There were not many (any?) after the initial search..
Posted from my mobile phone using Chrome
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Wow so you were really close to it. I was/am in Michigan. Thanks for sharing that shot from today. I appreciate it.
Yeah, I was about 20 miles outside of the city. It was quite an experience. I'm sure the coverage around the country was pretty extensive for the months after, but I expect that being in the NYC metro area, we saw slightly more news coverage.
There was not much you could do to escape it. Between the news and frequent conversation about it around town, the conversations never ended. So many people held on to hope that their loved ones would be found months after the attack, despite the odds.
I think that could be why so many others believe it was a conspiracy. Because if it wasn't, they don't know how to deal with that kind of hate and evil. But who knows.
I also saw some snipers sitting around the surrounding. Buildings during the memorial earlier in the morning. I felt that it wouldn't be appropriate to take their pictures so I don't have those pics.
The Oculus also opened the windows on the roof during the memorial service in rememberance of the victims of the attack. I had a pretty good vantage point to watch everything (even though I always have an eerie feeling being so close to "ground zero" on 9/11).