I asked rail commuters for their recollections… and
here is what they shared:
######
I was just entering my office at 48th and
Madison Avenue when building security told me that a plane had struck the World
Trade Center. At first, I thought he must have been referring to a Cessna or
some other small plane hitting a tower by accident. It was only when I got
upstairs to my office that I could see down Madison Avenue to the smoke rising
from one of the towers. I didn’t see the second plane hit, but I have a vivid
memory of helicopters circling over the two towers as smoke rose from them. My
hope was that they were there to rescue people on the roof, but that was not to
be.
Later that morning, as we learned what had
happened, cars stopped driving uptown on Madison Avenue and were replaced by a
stream of bewildered people walking north away from downtown Manhattan and the
Towers. They were literally streaming up the avenue. At that point, all subways
had stopped and the commuter railroads were suspended. And so the people just
kept coming for hours. Many looked exhausted and confused. Some were covered in
soot, indicating that they had already walked up from the Trade Center area.
The scene was surreal and post-apocalyptic. It’s one I’ll never forget.
Finally, Metro-North started up again in the
afternoon, taking people out of—but not into—New York City. My recollection is
that, like New Year’s Eve, there was no schedule. As the trains filled up, they
left GCT. I remember sitting across the
aisle on the train back to Darien from a guy who was wearing suit pants and an
undershirt covered in soot, dirt, and smoke. He must have started the day with
a jacket and tie, but lost them along the way. He talked a little about his
experience trying to get out of the Wall Street area and said how many people
were in distress and how he had stopped to help some as he made his way uptown.
There were so many unsung heroes from that day who simply stopped to help
others in need. I think that’s how he lost his jacket, shirt, and tie.
When I got home to Darien, I learned that one
of our neighbors had been in the second Tower that morning. I’ll close with his
story. My neighbor, whose name I won’t share because it’s not my story to
tell—and yet I suppose I’m doing that anyway—was on one of the top floors of
the second Tower when the first plane hit Tower One. Warnings were broadcast
over the building’s intercom to shelter in place and not attempt to leave
because it was dangerous to go outside with debris falling from Tower One. My
friend’s secretary, however, decided to take matters into her own hands and
told my friend and the others in their office that they had to leave, and had
to leave NOW. They did, and she saved their lives. They not only took the
elevator down—why not, there was no problem in Tower Two—but my neighbor also
got a subway up to Midtown before the subways were shut down. That secretary
saved a few lives that day and was another unsung hero.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the eeriest thing was
the quiet in the skies. All air traffic was stopped for a week or two—maybe
more—in the United States, and the ubiquitous jet trails in the skies were
gone, as were the ever-present planes beginning their descent over Darien and
Long Island Sound into LaGuardia. It was the quiet skies for weeks after 9/11
that really brought home to me how much the world had irrevocably changed on a
gorgeous, blue-sky day in September.
DAVID BAYNE / NOROTON HTS
######
On 9/11 I wasn't a commuter per se,
having bought a pied-a-terre there. I'd spent Monday night the 10th there.
Walking to work that morning, I passed the Pan Am/Met Life building, which was
being cleaned at the time. It really needed it, and they were doing a wonderful
job. I lingered for a few minutes marveling at the difference between the dirty
black and bright, nearly white portions. That delayed me just enough that when
I got to 5th Ave a tad later than usual, it was only 2-3 minutes after the
strike and I could see the smoke pouring out. I later saw the 2nd plane's
explosion out of the 2nd tower, but was at the wrong angle to see it hit. I
thought at the time that maybe the first plane's engine had carried beyond the
first tower into the 2nd and we were seeing a secondary explosion.
None of this, or the rest of my day was that
different from anyone else's. Before it came to be called "9/11"
though, I referred to it in typical British style as "the unpleasantness
last Tuesday." There's power in understatement but it didn't catch
on!
A friend of mine was one of the dozen or so
people whose fiancees perished. My girlfriend lost a childhood friend.
One thing, though. In the ensuing years, I
heard people say, "I watched the whole thing." No. They watched it on
TV. I watched it with my eyes, nothing between them at the WTC but air. There's
a difference.
I'll ask my wife if she wants to send you
anything. I suspect not, she's still a little PTSDed by it. She worked on Wall
Street, lost a number of friends. She was a commuter then, however. She and her
first husband caught the last train out of GCT.
I just remembered something I thought back in
the immediate aftermath. I thought there would be two changes in US domestic
policy that would happen. First (and I'm not trying to be political) I assumed
we'd exert tighter control over our borders, because when your country is
attacked, you close the gates. Didn't happen (at least in any rational way).
“DAVID”
######
Had an early morning meeting in the Equitable
(now Axa) building (7th Ave @ 51st Street). Remember
leaving the meeting a little after 9am and walked by the receptionist’s desk.
She was white as a ghost. She looked at me and said we were under attack - I
was confused. I was on the 17th floor looked downtown and saw black smoke
billowing from downtown. The building went into lock down mode no one in or
out. Tried to reach my wife on my mobile which was not working. However AOL
instant messenger worked on my firms computer for a while so we were able to
correspond for a while. Told her I was fine and she was able to fill in details
of what was going on. When we were finally able to leave the building I headed
directly to GCT. It was still locked down and a crowd of people were waiting to
get in to take a train out of the city. When they did let the crowd in I went
to the front car. I remember the car had police in the front of the car and
when we started to move through the tunnel to exit GCT the police and engineer
were looking at the tracks. Didn’t understand why until later when it was explained
to me that there were concerns that bombs had been placed I the tunnel. The
train was so quiet and my last memory was a man in the car in a suit covered in
grayish/ white dust. Then the weeks and months of memorials. Very sad.
“Barry” / Darien
######
On September 11th I was the Emergency Management
Director for Stamford.
We were notified that remain of victims would
be brought to Stamford. I made arrangements for the use of refrigerated
trucks and enlisted the assistance of local funeral directors to store remains in
their facilities. All but one agreed to assist. No bodies were
recovered. That was the most immediate
issue. Others - coordinating with State and Federal Officials kept
our office quite busy until midnight
Capt Thomas Lombardo / Stamford
Police (Ret)
I commute from Stamford.
The commute back from Manhattan to Stamford
that day was quite eerie. Although business had immediately shut down, it
took a while from GCT to be secured and reopened. Once it did, the walk to
GCT was eerily quiet. There was no car traffic on Fifth Avenue and as one
headed from Rockefeller Center toward GCT, looming right in front of you was
the smoke rising from the World Trade Center 5 miles south. When we pulled
in to Stamford Station, the taxi staging area was filled with ambulances. There
was an expectation of an overflow of injured - that couldn't be
handled by NY hospitals. Unfortunately, there were few, if any, injured
survivors.
Anonymous
######
On 9/11, I was chatting with a friend outside
of New Haven City Hall when someone came out and said a plane had flown into
the World Trade Center. I went inside, where someone had set up a television,
and eventually watched both towers collapse. In Connecticut, local hospitals
went to full mobilization to prepare for the wounded expected from the city.
Sadly, none ever came.
What I remember most was what I never saw;: the
family and friends who had to go to the station parking lots to retrieve the
cars of loved ones who were never coming home. Experienced rail commuters know
there are two parts to the commute: the round trip train ride and
the drive between the station and home. Getting off the train in the afternoon
and stepping into the car to head home to family and dinner is usually the most
enjoyable part of the day.
It is difficult to think of that day without
tears.
For background, I was one of your earliest rail
commuters, riding the Hartford Line from Wallingford to Hartford in the waning
days of the New Haven Railroad, when we still had American Express cars hitched
to the train Amtrak forced us off by changing the schedule in 1979.
David Parent / Wallingford
######
Add your memories of 9-11-2001 as a “Reply” to
this column.
