Remembering 9/11

[Yuriy]

I was at work in Brooklyn, having just returned from Moscow on 9/9. My coworker was on the phone with her friend who saw what happened from the window at work.

 

[Vic_Siqiao]

i was still in high school. when first seeing the news in China, i at once thought it as a terror attack with a lot of other guess, which finally was almost true.

 

[Rachit]

I was in India at that time and got shocked when i switched on my television set.

 

[charlesdwright]

On September 5, 2001, I had flown to NYC from Florida for the first time in 3 years to sign with a proprietary equities trading shop. The weather was perfect; when we took off from LaGuardia at sundown, we made a long, slow loop around the city that kept those magnificent Towers in our view for a very long time. It was impossible not to be impressed, and inspired.

On September 11, 2001, I was kneeling beside my bed saying a morning prayer. My wife at the time had just received a call from her sister with the news. We turned on the TV and I did my best to reassure and to explain to my children who were too old to be sheltered from the news. They received the news with calm and sobriety, not a hint of panic.

A few years later, I moved to the City and joined the New York Board of Trade (now ICE), which was formerly located in #4 WTC. Everyone I worked with was there on 9/11. They all had escape stories. Remarkably, the exchange lost only a few souls. My clearinghouse was located on 85th floor of Tower 2. One of the traders tells the story of ducking under his desk as he watched something approaching the building at blinding speed. The plane hit only few floors above. One of the firm's clerks is featured in a famous photograph of people walking down the stairs, while firefighters were walking up. Monsignor Reilly of Brooklyn has said in his talks that firefighters that day were asking for final absolution prior to entering the buildings. They said, "This is like Normandy. We know we're not coming back out of there." There were truly heroes.

Somehow my love for my great country and for this city catalyzed that day and I knew that I had put off coming here for too long.

***
If I may, I'd like to offer that, as an American by birth, it is very moving to read what so many of you who are new to this country have said about 9/11, and I want to thank you for your sensitivity. Among America's strengths are people like you who come here for the freedom and opportunity every human being deserves, bringing not only your talents but your hope and character as well. I thank you for bringing your strengths to our land, and for renewing us in our common strengths.

 

[VladimirBunicu]

Where were you on 9/11?


Jimmy

Even though I was in Moscow that day, it was shocking and memorable, I will never forget it.
It was about 5pm, I just came back from university, turned on the TV... At first I thought it was some action movie... Switched the channels - every channel had the same news. When I understood that it was real-time event, I just set down silently with my eyes wide, and remained that way for few hours. When my mother came in and asked what was the problem, I just pointed at the tv screen... That was shocking.
Then I tried to call friends and relatives in New York, but all the lines were busy. I reached them only the next day. My uncle worked one block away from WTC; their building was evacuated and he observed the explosion very closely.
That date I try not to watch tv. Since I moved to NYC, I decided not to own a tv at all... that's a different topic.

My condolence to quantnet'ers who had friends being victims of the attack.

 

[iosakwe]

At the bay in Exchange place, Jersey city. One of the thousands watching from the pier dumbfounded and wondering how the first building could have been struck. At that time, I consulted at Merrill Lynch and my commute involved connecting to the path train at the WTC - so i barely missed the first strike. As with most New Yorkers, I clearly remember that day very well. It was reasonably windy, a fall-like appeal, beautiful blue and clear skies, with minimum white clouds in sight. There was a helicopter hovering over the North tower. We kept asking each other 'How on earth could you crash into the tower' but the fog cleared up really quick. I literally saw the second plane hit the south tower. I couldn't believe my eyes, it was like an action movie. The pilot really seemed determined as he tried to position the plane's wings in a vertical angle to increase the number of casualties. I felt the impact of the explosion ACROSS the river. It sent chills through my spine and then a stream of anger, like I wanted to enroll in the military and go hunt down the perpetrators. Around me, there were different reactions, some cried, some cursed, others stood in shock. Then someone yelled "Get everyone out of these buildings", as we didn't know if there were more en route. We all evacuated. What cracked me up was when one of my co-workers, upon hearing about the evacuation and everyone going home, responded "I can't go home, my wife's there".

It was also striking how all New Yorkers became soft hearted, expressed concerns and embraced each other - stranger or not - which of course reverted a few weeks later.

 

[pauljack]

9/11

I was in Atlanta working at Cox Communications. I was using headphones to listen to the radio while I was working.
I remember hearing about the plane hitting the first building, and everybody thinking it was an accident. Then after the second plane hit it was a whole different situation, people started talking to each other, telling each other what happened, then everybody either listened to the radio in their cubicles, or were watching TV in the break room.
Since there was no productivity they sent everyone home.
I called my parents to check on my brother. My brother, who lives in NYC, was working a temp job at Morgan Stanley at the time. Luckily he wasn't in Manhattan, He was working in Brooklyn, and he was OK.
I remember driving home and being scared, it felt like the whole country was being attacked, we didn't know what would happen next. I also remember this pride I had and the love of country that I felt. it definatelt changed me forever.

PaulJack

 

[Andy Nguyen]

It's very heartwarming to read many stories from our Quantnet members. I think 9/11 has connected all of us in more ways than one. While majority of our members live, study or have relatives in NYC, it's always nice to read stories from members as far away as Paul and others.

6 years later and as some of us prepare to join the working force down on WS, the event surely will bring some new meaning to our life. Some of us will work at the new WTC buildings that were rebuilt. Some will work nearby but as you work past ground zero, it will be a constant reminder of the most important event in this country.

If you have stories to tell, I'd love to hear them all. Once a year, we will bring this thread back up to remind us all why NYC is so special and why we all hold it so dear to our hearts.

 

[IlyaKEightSix]

In freshman high school class in geometry when our teacher told us the WTC was attacked. At first I thought it was a joke since he had a reputation for joking a lot, but no, that indeed was the case. My English teacher was crying as well.

Indeed, never forget. I would say something a lot more politically incorrect relating to this, but I'll refrain.

 

[charlesdwright]

Andy,

Thanks for putting up the banner. It's an exceptional message.

 

[doug reich]

I was in high school a few blocks up West Street at the time. I wrote something down that evening, I think (there was nothing to do, and I was at loose ends). It is here with many others from my high school: World Trade Center Memorial Site: Eperience

You can also find a special edition of my high school's newspaper here: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/terrorism/stuy.pdf It was published about three weeks afterward, and it was included in the New York Times the next month.

Reading those things is more wrenching now than it was immediately afterward.

 

[charlesdwright]

9-11 seems to have divided the world into two camps: those who love America and those who hate it.

 

[Stefan Zota]

I was just relaxing at home in Romania before starting 3rd year of college.
I worked for about 2 months that summer at a software lab, so I had a vacation till October 1st.

I turned on the TV to watch a Discovery documentary and switched by accident to a general station. Normally I would not watch such a station at 4-4:30PM, nothing good at that time.
When it all started, it seemed unreal. My father just walked in, he was convinced it was some joke. I was glued to the TV for next 10 hours. There was a strong pro-american sentiment before the event (joining NATO and everything), this has really made every Romanian part of U.S. (long story here).

I didn't know much about WTC at the time except that it was a large building in Downtown Manhattan. From this event, I started to read about different Financial District locations. I wanted to come to U.S. to do Computer Science research, this was the first time I considered being closer to financial world.

 

[Olivier Sel]

I was in France, the TV was running in background. Then I saw the breaking news at 3pm, and I stand there 2 hours watching something i'll never forget.

Later on, I was outside, drinking a coffee. At first no one seemed to know, it was very hot, every one was taking a sun bath outside, drinking cofee, talking, laughing. But at about 6pm, I saw more and more sad people, sad faces, some were crying. Everyone was aware. I've never seen such a thing.

I think I will never feel myself so American and New-Yorker as I felt that day.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I read the NYT piece which describes very much how New Yorkers felt in the days after the WTC collapsed. We went back to the area to visit after a week or so, walking silently along the J&R store, Trinity church, Century 21 store path, looking at pictures of missing people on the wall in disbelief.
I don't know about you but every year, reading this thread again make me miss the old NYC very much. I've lived in the city for almost five years before Sept 11 and the city is never the same since.

The day dawned different and stayed that way. Traffic was thin and sidewalks quiet. The stock exchange didn’t open, nor the airports, the schools, Broadway. People loaded up on bottled water, batteries, canoes. The law enforcement presence was intense: men with machine guns, gunboats circling the harbor.

Downtown, fires burned, smoke plumed. The odor stood.

It was a city humbled and scared, where the possibilities of destruction had been recalibrated. It was Sept. 12, 2001. The day after.

So much has been said and written about what happened on 9/11. The following day is forgotten, just another dulled interlude in the aftermath of an incoherent morning.

But New Yorkers were introduced that day to irreducible presumptions about their wounded city that many believed would harden and become chiseled into the event’s enduring legacy.

New York would become a fortress city, choked by apprehension and resignation, forever patrolled by soldiers and submarines. Another attack was coming. And soon.

Tourists? Well, who would ever come again? Work in one of the city’s skyscrapers? Not likely. The Fire Department, gutted by 343 deaths, could never recuperate.

If a crippled downtown Manhattan were to have any chance of regeneration, ground zero had to be rebuilt quickly, a bricks and mortar nose-thumbing to terror.

Eight years later, those presumptions are cobwebbed memories that never came to pass. Indeed, glimpses into a few aspects of the city help measure the gap between what was predicted and what actually came to be.

New York a Fortress City? Future Seen on 9/12 Didnt Happen - NYTimes.com

 

[alain]

Every time I heard an airplane passing by and I'm not in an airport I feel weird. That's a reminder.

 

[Aditya Chitral]

In India, on a tennis court. When I came back the news was on all TV channels.

For the next few days, whenever I saw an airplane flying low, I was scared with the thought that it might hit another building (I was just 14 then). The incident might be one of the reasons why I am hesitant to travel in planes.

 

[Roger Trimble]

I was in the middle of tank gunnery at Fort Knox. We knew immediately we were no longer a peace-time army.

 

[aliasgarhaji]

I was in India, studying for my second year engineering in my student dorm. someone came into my room and screamed saying we need to get to the TV room. there was pure disbelief on all faces. That was probably the only in my student life I have seen the dorms that quiet ...

 

[alain]

Very simple. US soil had never been hit directly by an attack since Pearl Harbor. Also, there was not really a war going on in 2001 (at least not in the open). In the 40s, there was a full blown war happening.

Also, this date in history resonates deeply in US. I was there, so I know what I'm talking about . I'm sure those dates you mention have the same relevance in each of those countries (Germany, Russia and Japan) if they decide to remember them.