9-11 and Me
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 started out as a beautiful day. As the express bus from Hackensack NJ to NY descended down the viaduct into the Lincoln Tunnel, the view of the Manhattan skyline was breathtaking. The three tallest buildings in NY stood-out from all the other skyscrapers. I would look at the Empire State building and think of her as a mom staring down at her twins in lower Manhattan.
I was sitting at my desk when suddenly I heard this loud boom. A plane hit the north WTC Tower. The ground around Trinity Church was covered with all kinds of debris. The radio said a commercial jet liner hit the tower. No one could understand how, on a clear day, a plane could possibly hit the tower, much less a commercial jet.
I positioned myself at the window to get a better look when I saw the second plane. It was like sitting in the front row of a movie theater watching a war movie. As the plane disappeared into the tower, I saw the other side of the tower explode with this big ball of fire. The fire and smoke was not that heavy yet. The lights were still on and I thought the people inside might be able to find their way out. Our building intercom came on and told us to evacuate the building using the staircase.
Walking uptown on Broadway, looking up at the burning towers, now heavy with black smoke bellowing out, I saw people jumping from the towers. When I reached Liberty Street, suddenly, the south tower started to fall and this big, twenty some-story ball of black rubble, soot, and ash, came rolling over me as the tower crumbed. I could only think of Pompeii. I was at the corner newsstand and held on as I was encased in a cloud that turned daylight into pitch-darkness. There was no way to cover my face. I took slow breaths of air and rubble into my lungs. The rumble and thunder never stopped; it went on and on. I suddenly felt lifeless and at that moment I was not sure if I died and crossed over to the other side. Finally the noise slowly subsided, but there was no light. Everything was just pitch black and now I was sure that I did indeed die. It took forever, but I could see a very dim light, more like twilight but darker, allowing me to move and shake off some of the rubble. Again I was sure that I crossed over to the other side and I was now in purgatory. Cops were all around making sure people were okay, but even they seemed unsure of themselves.
As I came to my senses I started wandering down Maiden Lane. Now I was coughing, my eyes were burning, and my lungs felt as though they were on fire as I choked on the soot I had inhaled. The streets, the buildings, were all covered with gray powder. Then I heard the other tower as it crumbled; the soot and ash from that one was now bellowing down the street and the fragments flying though the air pushed me forward.
I stopped at the apartment of a friend. When we opened the door and stepped out onto the terrace I couldn’t believe what I saw. Here, twenty stories up, on the east side of town, the terrace was covered with inches of soot and ash. A mild breeze from west to east brought it over. The road going over the Brooklyn Bridge looked like a snow drift. I showered and later found out it was the best thing I ever did because of the asbestos they used building the WTC.
When I left the building, the streets were crowded with people and ambulances. I just shook my head and started walking uptown. The streets in Chinatown and little Italy were empty. When I reached 14th street, people were standing around St. Vincent’s hospital waiting for ambulances to come in with survivors. It felt like the TV series MASH. I just kept on walking. I just didn’t know what else to do.
When I reached 42nd street I found the Port Authority Bus Terminal was closed. Even the police officers didn’t know anything. A neighbor who lived just a block away came over and told me the subways were now running and buses were departing from the bus terminal at the George Washington Bridge. The trip home is another story.
After a month, I was able to return to my office building at 2 Rector Street. The whole area surrounding the WTC was fenced in and called “Ground Zero.” The smoke rising out of the center had the smell of a mortuary. What was there was still burning.
One thing survived the WTC. The sphere that was in the plaza between the two towers where people would spend their lunchtime in the summer and enjoy the weekly entertainment. It is temporarily at Battery Park with an eternal flame burning and will be moved to the sight later on. It shows the destruction, but it also represents that we will survive.
Milton Gordon now lives full time in Rehoboth Beach.