I was not far away when it happened. I wasn't at the WTC site, but close by on Greenwich Street. Some people saw it on TV, some on the horizon, I looked up.
We stayed in the office until afternoon for two reasons: one, it was a construction company that specialized in building repairs and we thought we might be needed. Second, by some miracle while all other communications failed our internet stayed up, and we were sending messages from the long stream of dust covered people to loved ones.
Mid afternoon I joined them. Getting home wasn't easy with train service out, in the end I got a spot on a ferry. It looked like Dunkirk. Swarms of boats on the Hudson. The whole ferry load of people were sprayed down because they thought the dust was toxic- and they turned out to be right.
I remember the responders, I saw all the details that are lost to history. I have never seen a convoy of Coca Cola trucks with a police escort before. If McDonald's gave out medals for bravery, the owner of the restaurant on Chambers Street would qualify, though it cost him his life. I remember the ambulances sitting parked in rows in the staging areas, routing instructions chalked on windshields, sitting because they weren't needed- for the most part people were unhurt, or they were dead.
Needless to say, working in building repair I had a lot of time around the site in the weeks to come, everyone in the industry did. So maybe it hit me more- now when people say "Never Forget" I know I couldn't if I tried. It's part of me. I still cannot go to the museum.
says these figures are a painter's dream!
