I Witnessed The Fall Of The Towers

I went to work. I had been really sick in the days leading up to 9/11. Our offices were closing at the end of the month, so it probably didn’t matter whether I went to work or not, but I didn’t want my co-workers stuck with another day of my duties. I still had a throat infection, but the fever had broken and I thought I was OK to go.

Instead of taking the subway, I slept the extra hour or so and took the Long Island Rail Road into the city, which turned out to be a fortunate decision later. I slept on the train also, and when I arrived at Penn Station I was already feeling worse. I wanted to go back to bed, but instead, like a good employee, I boarded the E train to the World Trade Center complex.

Almost exactly as I stepped off the train, I heard a loud boom. You hear booms and bangs all the time in New York - it’s part of the background noise of life in the busiest city in the world. This boom, however, had to be different, because I actually thought to myself, “Hmm…sounds like a bomb. Maybe they’ll close the buildings and I’ll get to go home.”

Looking back, it seems like an awful and callous thing to think, and I probably didn’t believe it was even remotely possible, but I did think exactly that. Of all the things that happened next, that thought stays with me and probably bothers me the most.

It is a good walk from the subway complex at Chambers Street to the offices at 3 World Financial, with the first part being underground in a concourse with shops and newsstands.