I arrived at the World Financial Center at approximately 8:30 a.m. via the NY Waterway ferry that runs from Hoboken. I passed underneath the WTC 2 (South Tower) at approximately 8:35 AM. The first plane was approximately seven minutes away from striking the WTC 1 (North Tower).
As I walked up Liberty St., I passed Ladder Company 10. There were several young firemen standing in front, joking around and enjoying the beautiful weather. I thought as I always do when I pass this particular station about being young, fit, and brave and of the sacrifices that these young men may be called upon to make some day. Little did I know that this would be ‘the’ day that they would be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice. I hope that some of them survived the cataclysmic events of the day. I later found out that three of their number perished at the scene. Their company was the first to respond.
I arrived at work at 8:45 and as I was settling in, I noticed a large quantity of paper floating past the windows of the 2nd floor of 95 Wall St., where I worked for JP Morgan Chase and Company. This seemed very odd. Usually this quantity of paper would only accompany a ticker tape parade. A co-worker emerged from her cubicle next to mine with a stunned expression on her face and told me that an airplane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I listened in disbelief, refusing to acknowledge that such an inconceivable event could possibly occur. Then, with a dawning horror, I remembered all of the paper I saw floating around and began to realize that, perhaps she was right.
I walked over to my manager’s office and relayed this information. He was skeptical until I pointed to all of the paper floating around outside his window. At this time people from all over the floor were standing up and confirming the awful news – it was already being reported on the Internet. An aircraft had struck the North Tower # 1 at WTC and the building was on fire.
My manager Tony and I decided to walk over to Chase Plaza to get a closer vantage point and maybe get a sense of the severity of the event. Chase Plaza is approximately 300 yards from the WTC 2 (So. Tower). As we left 95 Wall St. we looked up and saw a huge plume of smoke overhead and realized that something unthinkable had just happened. We arrived at Chase Plaza and were looking up towards WTC 1 when we heard a loud rumbling roar. The volume of this noise reached a crescendo and culminated in an incredible explosion, the sound of a whip crack then an immense roar, the fireball engulfing the entire top third of the South Tower. We felt the heat and, in sheer terror, turned and ran/walked for our lives. I can’t run so I kind of skipped along, feeling extremely vulnerable.
I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the second aircraft impacting the South Tower. I thought it was a huge secondary explosion and remember thinking that the building was dying. It was almost like watching a living creature being dealt a deathblow, for that was surely what I witnessed. Nothing could have survived that explosion. The world had gone completely crazy. Everybody was running away crying and screaming. I looked around for Tony and couldn’t find him so I started to walk away as fast as I could. Due to my knee problem I can’t run anymore. I caught up to Tony a block away where he was waiting for me.
We both kind of trotted/fast walked back to 95 Wall. We were both in shock and could barely relate what we had just witnessed to coworkers standing outside the building. We were white faced, in shock and only marginally coherent.
I went inside and managed to compose myself with the aid of some heart medication that I take from time to time. My heart was freaking out, beating wildly, and I realized that I had better calm down or I was going to be in some seriously deep shit.
By this point, we were finding out what had happened. Two hijacked passenger jets had been deliberately flown into each of the 2 World Trade Center towers. New York was under attack.
Everyone was in shock. We could barely speak to one another. One employee, Mike, was last seen running towards WTC. His two kids were in daycare there. He found out via cell phone that his kids had been evacuated and were safe with his wife. While he was in the area he was the unfortunate witness to many people that were jumping to escape the flames. He said he saw people, sometimes as many as five at a time, holding hands and jumping together.
My manager, Tony, asked that everyone remain in the building and to not leave until further notification. We didn’t know how long we would be cooped up in the office. Another employee Joe and I went downstairs to purchase some food for later. The little store in the lobby was almost out, so I decided to go across the street to see if I could get some sandwiches or something. A coworker Tim came along with me. I thank God that he did.
I wound up buying more bagels and when I paid for them, I found that I had almost no money left in my wallet. I decided to get some more cash for later when I most surely would need some. Tim and I started to walk up Water street to go to an ATM when we saw people running across Water St. heading towards the East River. They seemed pretty panicked but neither Tim nor I could see the cause of their terror. Then we saw what was panicking them – huge roiling clouds of black smoke heading our way. These clouds were produced when the South Tower collapsed. We didn’t know about the collapse yet so we thought the worst, NYC was under a coordinated full scale attack. We thought the Wall St. area was being targeted. It was time to get the hell out of there.
We tried to outrun the cloud towards the East River, but it quickly engulfed us. It was like a scene from hell. The smoke was everywhere, soot, ashes, and small pellets were raining down on our heads and we could barely breathe. No one knew where to go. We both realized that the decisions that we would make in the next few moments could literally be the difference between life and death.
We decided to make for the Battery Park area. We made it a few hundred yards south and much to our dismay; the smoke seemed even heavier in that direction. Pretty soon the street was choked with so many people that we could make no further headway. I felt trapped. As we were trying to stay calm in the middle of a sea of panicky people we heard an approaching roar. It was really close now and getting incredibly loud. We all thought that another airplane was going to crash right overhead. People were screaming and crying and basically going bananas. For one horrifying and unbelievably poignant moment Tim and I thought we were about to die. But, then miraculously it kept going. It didn’t crash. It must have been a military aircraft flying low towards the west side of Manhattan. The sound of a jet plane flying over head fills me with a sense of dread now.
Fortunately we were close to the FDR drive and were able to climb onto it. I remember a woman struggling to get over the railing. Without hesitation I placed my hand on her rear end and pushed for all I was worth. She toppled over the other side and then a male companion reached down for me and helped me over.
Tim and I started walking north on the FDR through the smoke wondering if we were going to survive the day – expecting at any second to see more explosions. We eventually got clear of the worst of it as we approached China Town where we got off of the FDR to head towards midtown. It was at that point that we heard a distant roar and thought that there were more planes crashing into lower Manhattan. This was the sound of the second WTC building coming down. We still didn’t know that either of them had collapsed.
I checked my beeper for news and saw the report that one and possibly both towers had come down. It didn’t seem possible that this could happen. These were structures that had looked like they could survive a nuclear attack. The way that they had been engineered apparently had been a major factor in their collapse. All of the building support was in the exterior shell and when it gave way the entire structure just imploded.
We trudged onward, heading uptown away from the scene of so much destruction. We hardly looked back. We couldn’t look back. It was just too awful. Eventually we stopped a diner and used the restroom to rinse most of the ash from our heads and arms. Whatever we were coated in was starting to burn and we were concerned about it’s toxicity. Eventually we got pretty cleaned up. We saw some other people who looked like ghosts. They had so much ash on them that they were completely white.
While we were at the diner we watched the television news reporting. One of the reporters was starting to theorize that perhaps these jets had contained chemical or biological weapons which may have been broadcast over a wide area. When I heard that I felt an icy dread that I have never before experienced.
We continued on until we reached Penn Station. It was closed and there were thousands of people milling around. Tim and I then walked over to the New York Waterway. There were boats running from Manhattan to Hoboken, where I normally take the train home. I got in line and Tim and I said goodbye and good luck and he headed back to Penn Station.
After approximately a two-hour wait, I finally boarded a ferry to Hoboken. I sat in shocked silence with everyone else on the ferry, realizing that the world, as we knew it, had just been profoundly changed. We were at war and there was no going back.
When I reached Hoboken I was directed to a decontamination area. All of the people that were within a ten block radius of WTC and had been exposed to the collapsing building’s dust were being hosed down. I was examined by a doctor who said that I had the slowest heart rate he had heard thus far and I told him that it was probably due to the beta blocker, Atenelol, that I had taken earlier in the day to calm my palpitating heart.
I finally got home, still soaking wet and shivering from the air conditioning on the train. I’ve never been so profoundly glad to get home.
Frank Healy, a longtime Bloomfield resident, is a former employee of JPMorgan Chase with a fondness for cats and acoustic guitars.
