I was working in NJ offices for a NY-based company so I had to go into NYC every few weeks. On 9/11/2001, I was on a NJ Transit commuter train going into NYC Penn Station for a conference. From the train we saw smoke from that part of Manhattan, but it was tough to make out specifically what was going on. I was on one of the last trains in before they closed all of the tunnels. Once I got into NY Penn Station, I saw on the news on a TV at a coffee bar that the North Tower was hit by a plane, but at that time no one knew what was going on specifically. It was generally thought it was a commuter or small plane. I made my way to my company's offices, which are on 42nd and Lexington, near Grand Central Station, where we were able to piece together the horrific events of the day, but I remember we could not get TV or internet coverage and there were lots of rumors freaking people out. At one point I remember hearing a report that there were 50 planes in the air that were unaccounted for. Since we were located near the UN, we feared that would be a target. From the high floors of my building we could see downtown. I remember the first time seeing the skyline without the Twin Towers from there. Just smoke.
Since all entry in and out of NYC was closed, I had to walk to my brother-in-law's apartment on the Upper East Side and spend the afternoon and evening there. I remember the streets being crowded with people walking aimlessly uptown in the middle of the afternoon. Bars were full of people trying to make sense of the day's events. It was totally surreal. I finally was able to catch a train home at around 10pm. By then the streets of NYC were eerily quiet, like I've never seen before or since. For those of you familiar with NYC, even at 3 am on a weekday, there's activity. It was like a ghost town.
The really weird thing that I noticed a few days later was that the brochure for the conference I was planning to attend (that was obviously canceled) had the date of the conference, September 11, 2001, and a picture of the Twin Towers on the cover, even though the conference was not going to be held in those buildings. I guess they put them on the cover as a symbol of NYC. I kept it as a remembrance.
Rich
"Failure is Not a Destination"
Coach K on the Dan Patrick Show, December 22, 2016