September 11, 2001 shown through multiple video cameras in real time...
September 11, 2024 6:45 AM Subscribe
102 Minutes That Changed America [YouTube] is an American television special documentary film that was produced by the History Channel and premiered commercial-free on Thursday, September 11, 2008, marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The film serves as a compilation of amateur footage taken by numerous people filming the attacks, edited together to present the film in real time. ***[NSFW] [Content Warning: contains graphic footage]***
Wow, even in 2008 the History Channel created something useful??
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posted by Melismata at 7:31 AM on September 11
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posted by Melismata at 7:31 AM on September 11
There's a new-ish multi-hour media assembly out there that shows the ATC and incident response in real time, overlaid on the publicly available video and flight tracking that surprised me when I saw it the a few months back, just how quickly people realized things weren't right, but also how little visibility ATC really had at times.
posted by Kyol at 7:34 AM on September 11 [5 favorites]
posted by Kyol at 7:34 AM on September 11 [5 favorites]
I can't watch because of my personal PTSD, but I was there -- a few blocks from the WTC walking my puppy when the first plane hit. The pictures I took have stayed in my camera roll, phone after phone, photo service after photo service, traveling with me for all these years. Each year I scroll back and look. I'm still not sure I have any way to talk about it. We were so close that the EPA bought me a new mattress. There was a tank parked outside my building for two months.
Today, walking out of my apartment, still just a few blocks from Ground Zero, the morning felt so crisp and perfect, almost exactly like it did 23 years ago. You forget how lovely late September is in NYC.
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posted by The Bellman at 8:05 AM on September 11 [77 favorites]
Today, walking out of my apartment, still just a few blocks from Ground Zero, the morning felt so crisp and perfect, almost exactly like it did 23 years ago. You forget how lovely late September is in NYC.
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posted by The Bellman at 8:05 AM on September 11 [77 favorites]
What a fucking weird and awful day that was.
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:05 AM on September 11 [4 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 8:05 AM on September 11 [4 favorites]
<3, Bellman.
posted by saturday_morning at 8:14 AM on September 11 [3 favorites]
posted by saturday_morning at 8:14 AM on September 11 [3 favorites]
God that day was so surreal. I was originally supposed to be in Manhattan that day. I would have been in Midtown so well out of harms way in a sense, but still.
Instead I was there the week before and one of my coworkers in an uncharastically touristy mood asked me to accompany him to the WTC and observation deck. He had me take a photo of him smiling across the greyness of a cloudy NYC. He posts that photo every year and every year I shudder a little.
Instead of being there I was safely ensconced back in LA waking up to a bad fever dream that seemed so fake that I thought my roomate had left the TV on a channel showing a bad action movie where the hero saves the day from the evil terrorists.
And didn't the country end up acting like that's all they wanted - the big swinging hero coming in to mow down those who'd threaten Truth, Justice and the American Way?
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:42 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
Instead I was there the week before and one of my coworkers in an uncharastically touristy mood asked me to accompany him to the WTC and observation deck. He had me take a photo of him smiling across the greyness of a cloudy NYC. He posts that photo every year and every year I shudder a little.
Instead of being there I was safely ensconced back in LA waking up to a bad fever dream that seemed so fake that I thought my roomate had left the TV on a channel showing a bad action movie where the hero saves the day from the evil terrorists.
And didn't the country end up acting like that's all they wanted - the big swinging hero coming in to mow down those who'd threaten Truth, Justice and the American Way?
posted by drewbage1847 at 8:42 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
I’d lived in the city 6 years by then, but NYC lost its magic that day. The first reports made me shrug because I’d read about the time a small plane hit the Empire State Building. But after the second plane we all crowded around the television in horror. After they collapsed the boss sent us home. I walked across the 59th St Bridge and caught the G, which was still running. Then I had to walk through the Gowanus to get home, under the cloud of smoke. Ashes and burned bits of still readable paperwork fell from the sky around me, caking the ground in gray. All our tv reception at home relied on the WTC transmitters, so we plugged in the extant coax and discovered we got a random assortment of free cable. It was really confusing and scary not knowing who had done this or why.
posted by rikschell at 9:34 AM on September 11 [6 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 9:34 AM on September 11 [6 favorites]
It was a gorgeous day in the DC area also on September 11th. Today's weather reminds me well of that day, except ... I live in the flight path of National Airport and can hear planes taking off and approaching for landing right now. It became very quiet in the skies that day, in stark contrast to today. Also, I saw the smoke from the Pentagon burning, a stain in the sky.
It took me a while to make it home from work, due to general chaos in the DC area. Cell service was overwhelmed and not working and after our office closed we had to sit around for a while in cars in the parking lot listening to car radios as the news filtered in about what was happening. My friend gave me a ride back to Virginia from our office in Maryland but traffic was crazy so I eventually told her to just drop me off and then I walked quite a way. Once I finally got home I turned on CNN. I won't ever forget some of the raw footage (some of which has never been re-shown to the public out of respect for the dead.)
I made a comment in 2013 about 9/11, and it still holds true for me (sadly):
[9/11] was the first experience of being attacked for the U.S. government in a long, long time. They were pretty traumatized by it, a lot of them still are. They overreacted then (Iraq), they are still in the throes of overreacting (i.e. more erosion of freedom in the name of security). I feel in a way like the country is a car that was in an accident, starting to skid, is still skidding, and has not yet figured out how to right itself.
For me, it is important to try to remember that each individual person has value and that those who died that day each had their own story and had people who cared for them, and should be remembered, that history is at its heart the stories of individuals.
posted by gudrun at 9:46 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
It took me a while to make it home from work, due to general chaos in the DC area. Cell service was overwhelmed and not working and after our office closed we had to sit around for a while in cars in the parking lot listening to car radios as the news filtered in about what was happening. My friend gave me a ride back to Virginia from our office in Maryland but traffic was crazy so I eventually told her to just drop me off and then I walked quite a way. Once I finally got home I turned on CNN. I won't ever forget some of the raw footage (some of which has never been re-shown to the public out of respect for the dead.)
I made a comment in 2013 about 9/11, and it still holds true for me (sadly):
[9/11] was the first experience of being attacked for the U.S. government in a long, long time. They were pretty traumatized by it, a lot of them still are. They overreacted then (Iraq), they are still in the throes of overreacting (i.e. more erosion of freedom in the name of security). I feel in a way like the country is a car that was in an accident, starting to skid, is still skidding, and has not yet figured out how to right itself.
For me, it is important to try to remember that each individual person has value and that those who died that day each had their own story and had people who cared for them, and should be remembered, that history is at its heart the stories of individuals.
posted by gudrun at 9:46 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
I was a disaffected, depressed 18 year old college student in North Carolina in 2001, who saw this unfold on tv and could feel sympathy, but it didn't hit me hard.
Now, 23 years later as a resident of New York for the last 15, I watch this with tears in my eyes thinking of my friends and memories that would be destroyed if this happened again today. The scope of death and fear and trauma that was experienced that day is incomprehensible to me now.
posted by greta simone at 10:27 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Now, 23 years later as a resident of New York for the last 15, I watch this with tears in my eyes thinking of my friends and memories that would be destroyed if this happened again today. The scope of death and fear and trauma that was experienced that day is incomprehensible to me now.
posted by greta simone at 10:27 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Yep, I was there. Don't need to see it again.
posted by slogger at 10:42 AM on September 11 [6 favorites]
posted by slogger at 10:42 AM on September 11 [6 favorites]
I was in high school, study hall, in a little library room. They announced the first plane over the loudspeaker and I was just kind of puzzled, no sense of what that meant. When the second plane hit, or maybe when the towers collapsed, they had everyone gather in the chapel (Catholic school). A few students were frantically trying to get ahold of a parent or other family member who was at the WTC that day. We were in southern Connecticut, so a lot of commuters to NYC. My father is a volunteer firefighter and his company offered relief services in the coming weeks, though they weren't among the first down there. Lot of emergency workers who worked at the site have since died from cancer and other health issues from exposure.
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posted by carrioncomfort at 11:00 AM on September 11
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posted by carrioncomfort at 11:00 AM on September 11
It was such a surreal day...
I was heading to work in Bellevue from Seattle. Listening to sports radio as I do.
And the first plane hit. No one quite knew what was going on. And then the second plane hit. And then the towers came down...
And our building was on the edge of downtown, and would have been a pretty easy target. So spent an hour or two looking east out of my office window, until they told us to go home.
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For all the people who lost their lives that day. Such a horrific event. Will never not make me cry thinking about it.
posted by Windopaene at 11:03 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
I was heading to work in Bellevue from Seattle. Listening to sports radio as I do.
And the first plane hit. No one quite knew what was going on. And then the second plane hit. And then the towers came down...
And our building was on the edge of downtown, and would have been a pretty easy target. So spent an hour or two looking east out of my office window, until they told us to go home.
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For all the people who lost their lives that day. Such a horrific event. Will never not make me cry thinking about it.
posted by Windopaene at 11:03 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]
The original 9/11 thread on Metafilter.
I was in the US Air Force on that day, stationed in San Antonio, Texas - with one huge Army post and three Air Force bases. It was absolutely surreal - gridlock for miles at access points, nobody knew exactly what was happening, where to go, etc.
In addition to the sheer horror, sadness, and outrage, the entire day - and the next several days - were haunted by the fear of what might happen next, if any other such attacks were imminent.
posted by davidmsc at 11:10 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
I was in the US Air Force on that day, stationed in San Antonio, Texas - with one huge Army post and three Air Force bases. It was absolutely surreal - gridlock for miles at access points, nobody knew exactly what was happening, where to go, etc.
In addition to the sheer horror, sadness, and outrage, the entire day - and the next several days - were haunted by the fear of what might happen next, if any other such attacks were imminent.
posted by davidmsc at 11:10 AM on September 11 [9 favorites]
I was across West Street at my desk when everything happened, then in Battery Park when the first tower fell and up near the seaport when the second one went...
posted by AJaffe at 11:20 AM on September 11
posted by AJaffe at 11:20 AM on September 11
Just a note about that 23-year-old thread: as you might expect, we were not all at our best that day. I don't remember if I was lurking here that early or not. I don't think so, but standards of discourse were ... not great back then.
posted by rikschell at 11:32 AM on September 11 [5 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 11:32 AM on September 11 [5 favorites]
there were two threads that day on the attack, the first one still remains the second one was deleted.
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posted by clavdivs at 11:47 AM on September 11
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posted by clavdivs at 11:47 AM on September 11
I was another DC resident, scrambling to carpool to get out of the city. I worked a block away from the White House and sometimes wonder about Flight 93 and whether they saved my life.
posted by PussKillian at 12:39 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
posted by PussKillian at 12:39 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
There's a new-ish multi-hour media assembly out there that shows the ATC and incident response in real time
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
With that, I was particularly struck by the advertisement coincidentally playing on CNN the very moment the first plane struck the WTC, an ad for the Pennsylvania University system featuring Governor Tom Ridge, soon to become the first Secretary of Homeland Security as a direct result of the attacks.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:39 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
With that, I was particularly struck by the advertisement coincidentally playing on CNN the very moment the first plane struck the WTC, an ad for the Pennsylvania University system featuring Governor Tom Ridge, soon to become the first Secretary of Homeland Security as a direct result of the attacks.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 12:39 PM on September 11 [4 favorites]
I was living in Rhode Island in 2001, but watched it all on TV; plenty of friends were in the city and we fretted until we heard from them.
And then I went to the Memorial and Museum a few years ago with busload of Cub Scouts. The kids were blandly curious, but the adults seemed kind of short-circuited by the time we found ourselves deep in the exhibits, among gray light and flickering TV sets and a fire truck and endlessly-looping video of the day's cruelest tragedies.
I didn't quite have a panic attack, but I felt really...overwhelmed by a flight reaction, with nowhere to go. (Thinking about that day still does it to me.) Getting up into the plaza and visiting Mychal Judge's name on the black slabs was calming.
I think of his prayer a lot:
And then I went to the Memorial and Museum a few years ago with busload of Cub Scouts. The kids were blandly curious, but the adults seemed kind of short-circuited by the time we found ourselves deep in the exhibits, among gray light and flickering TV sets and a fire truck and endlessly-looping video of the day's cruelest tragedies.
I didn't quite have a panic attack, but I felt really...overwhelmed by a flight reaction, with nowhere to go. (Thinking about that day still does it to me.) Getting up into the plaza and visiting Mychal Judge's name on the black slabs was calming.
I think of his prayer a lot:
“Lord, take me where You want me to goposted by wenestvedt at 12:56 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
Let me meet who You want me to meet
Tell me what You want me to say and
Keep me out of your way.”
— Fr Mychal Judge
I live in the flight path of National Airport and can hear planes taking off and approaching for landing right now.
Another couple of surreal memory from those times, I too lived in the Glover Park area of DC in the flight path for National.
First, my roommates and I, once I finally made it home late that evening having walked home across town too scared by the false rumors of other attackers in the Metro and Embassy Row, sat down not knowing what to do with ourselves and truly faded by all that had happened set to getting as intoxicated as we could muster. Having consumed all the alcohol in the house we stepped outside to smoke cigarettes and the remnants of my roommate's weed stash around midnight. Standing there in the eerie silence of a capital on war lockdown for the first time in our lives we heard the frightening sound of plane engines overhead. We all looked up to see the unmistakable triangular black silhouettes of two stealth bombers skimming the tree line over our neighborhood.
Months later travelling back home after a long work day, the entire bus let out an audible gasp as we all saw a commercial jetliner skimming in over the rooftops, and then there was a collective sigh of relief as we all remembered that it was the day they were reopening National for the first time since 9/11.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:01 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]
Another couple of surreal memory from those times, I too lived in the Glover Park area of DC in the flight path for National.
First, my roommates and I, once I finally made it home late that evening having walked home across town too scared by the false rumors of other attackers in the Metro and Embassy Row, sat down not knowing what to do with ourselves and truly faded by all that had happened set to getting as intoxicated as we could muster. Having consumed all the alcohol in the house we stepped outside to smoke cigarettes and the remnants of my roommate's weed stash around midnight. Standing there in the eerie silence of a capital on war lockdown for the first time in our lives we heard the frightening sound of plane engines overhead. We all looked up to see the unmistakable triangular black silhouettes of two stealth bombers skimming the tree line over our neighborhood.
Months later travelling back home after a long work day, the entire bus let out an audible gasp as we all saw a commercial jetliner skimming in over the rooftops, and then there was a collective sigh of relief as we all remembered that it was the day they were reopening National for the first time since 9/11.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:01 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]
That documentary in the post is really worth watching if you can stomach it. I was only 12 at the time and had never been anywhere near NYC (where I now live), and watching it a few years after moving here helped me understand some things about what the city experienced that I didn’t understand before.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:07 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:07 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Trump smiling and winking at female photographers during the 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York. Trump and sons looking around during a moment of silence. JV Dance in Trump cosplay.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:12 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
posted by kirkaracha at 1:12 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Perhaps one of the most amazing feats was how quickly the entire US airspace was cleared as the picture unfolded.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:17 PM on September 11
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:17 PM on September 11
JV Dance in Trump cosplay
Obv Trump's hands are photoshopped bigger
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:25 PM on September 11
Obv Trump's hands are photoshopped bigger
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:25 PM on September 11
JV Dance in Trump cosplay
What's with the prostate cancer ribbons?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:27 PM on September 11
What's with the prostate cancer ribbons?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:27 PM on September 11
I know this will land poorly for a lot of folks, but I try to adopt a 'vale of ignorance' approach to things, especially those that have an obvious emotional valence...
9/11 is when I started paying attention to politics and especially global real politik in earnest. To me, when I think about the victims of 9/11, I also think of the human cost of the energy trade and the supposed 'pax americana'.
Those victims in Manhattan and the trauma their communities faced are not about 'justice' or 'eyeforeye' or anything that makes sense. It's all tragic. It's all horrible. But I try to remember the small ways in which I am complicit and especially the way the 'american way of life' is complicit in this.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:29 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
9/11 is when I started paying attention to politics and especially global real politik in earnest. To me, when I think about the victims of 9/11, I also think of the human cost of the energy trade and the supposed 'pax americana'.
Those victims in Manhattan and the trauma their communities faced are not about 'justice' or 'eyeforeye' or anything that makes sense. It's all tragic. It's all horrible. But I try to remember the small ways in which I am complicit and especially the way the 'american way of life' is complicit in this.
posted by Reasonably Everything Happens at 1:29 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
It’s estimated that well over 1/3 of humans alive today were born post 9.11.01. I think about that sometimes - the ever growing % of people who’s entire lived experience has been shaped by how it changed the world.
I have no real story - I was 9,000 miles away in New Zealand - was woken before 5am by a panicked parent who thought a nuclear attack had occurred, and tuned into the 5am Morning Report on Radio NZ which scared the living shit out of me (45 second extract if anyone interested in how it was presented on the other side of the world)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:04 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
I have no real story - I was 9,000 miles away in New Zealand - was woken before 5am by a panicked parent who thought a nuclear attack had occurred, and tuned into the 5am Morning Report on Radio NZ which scared the living shit out of me (45 second extract if anyone interested in how it was presented on the other side of the world)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:04 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
It’s estimated that well over 1/3 of humans alive today were born post 9.11.01. I think about that sometimes - the ever growing % of people who’s entire lived experience has been shaped by how it changed the world.
I don't think the world changed for the better and as someone who was far removed from the horrible events, I can't help but focus on that every year when this date rolls around.
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
About 5 years later I worked as a tour guide at the US Capitol and one of my colleagues was an older woman. She was extremely kind, a foster mother of probably over a dozen kids, and she always proudly referred to them as "her kids!" But I remember somehow the conversation one day turned to 9/11 and she recalled standing outside the Capitol and watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. She then shared that on December 7, 1941, her family lived in Hawaii as her father was in the military, and she remembered as a little girl watching the smoke rise up from Pearl Harbor. This has just stuck with me ever since.
posted by Atreides at 2:27 PM on September 11 [7 favorites]
I don't think the world changed for the better and as someone who was far removed from the horrible events, I can't help but focus on that every year when this date rolls around.
Incredible assembly, really floods back a lot of emotions for me, who was stuck on Capitol Hill that day watching across the Mall as the smoke billowed from the Pentagon, waiting, waiting, waiting for the last plane to strike us. It was me those people on United 93 may have saved. Harrowing...
About 5 years later I worked as a tour guide at the US Capitol and one of my colleagues was an older woman. She was extremely kind, a foster mother of probably over a dozen kids, and she always proudly referred to them as "her kids!" But I remember somehow the conversation one day turned to 9/11 and she recalled standing outside the Capitol and watching the smoke rise from the Pentagon. She then shared that on December 7, 1941, her family lived in Hawaii as her father was in the military, and she remembered as a little girl watching the smoke rise up from Pearl Harbor. This has just stuck with me ever since.
posted by Atreides at 2:27 PM on September 11 [7 favorites]
I'd needed to sleep and organize the apartment in the morning, so I'd turned my phone off the night before and didn't turn it on again until noon. I had about twenty messages from various people, all asking if I was okay and none mentioning what had happened. The first thing my dad says when I call him asking what the hell is going on is, "remember the twin towers?" "Remember?"
It's weird to think that for about a week Rudy Giuliani was a hero just for being an actual, genuine human being for a minute. Then he announced that he wanted to cancel the upcoming mayoral election because of the ongoing crisis and we were all oh hell no.
It's surreal just how kind New Yorkers were to each other in the days and months after. Wish we could have held on to that.
Also: not hearing airplanes constantly. It's like during the subway strike when the rumble was noticeable by its absence.
posted by phooky at 2:30 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
It's weird to think that for about a week Rudy Giuliani was a hero just for being an actual, genuine human being for a minute. Then he announced that he wanted to cancel the upcoming mayoral election because of the ongoing crisis and we were all oh hell no.
It's surreal just how kind New Yorkers were to each other in the days and months after. Wish we could have held on to that.
Also: not hearing airplanes constantly. It's like during the subway strike when the rumble was noticeable by its absence.
posted by phooky at 2:30 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
My friend wrote a middle-grades children's book about that day. It was shockingly brutal and frightening: a young boy escaping from the doomed towers, contrasted with the story of a girl in Afghanistan years later dealing with a wounded American soldier. He wrote it for a generation of kids so far removed from what happened. Many of whose parents DID experience it and are still too traumatized to talk about it rationally. I admire what he did, but fuck that book was harrowing.
posted by rikschell at 2:52 PM on September 11
posted by rikschell at 2:52 PM on September 11
Stumbled on this link to the original MeFi thread in my Blue Sky feed.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:26 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
Every few years I reread this live-blogging of 9/11. It’s…a lot. But it’s what I think of when kids ask me what that day was like. Not an easy read—and the archives for that month capture more of the reaction—but this is what it felt like in the moment.(Blue Sky link but it will only work for people logged into Blue Sky because settings.)Plane crashes in to the word trade center. Apologies for not linking to anything besides the main CNN page but there are no full stories on this yet. The plane crashed into the building about six minutes ago, from what the TV is saying. We are about sixty blocks north and we can see the smoke over the skyline.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:26 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
It was a beautiful, sunny September morning in Southern NJ. I worked for a newspaper and nobody knew what the hell to do. We published an afternoon edition but by the time that hit the streets most of the stories were already out of date, and everyone who had access was staring at internet news sites to keep up. IMO, that day combined with craigslist coming to our metro area was the beginning of the end of our local newspaper as we knew it.
I don't reread live accounts of that day anymore. I remember it all too well, as I do the fear of an anthrax letter being in the middle of the contest entries we were still required to open.
posted by kimberussell at 3:36 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
I don't reread live accounts of that day anymore. I remember it all too well, as I do the fear of an anthrax letter being in the middle of the contest entries we were still required to open.
posted by kimberussell at 3:36 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
In 2001 my brother worked near the WTC. He rode the PATH train to it every day. He usually got there right around the time the first plane struck. Luckily for him and his family, his nine year old son somehow made him late for work that day. He spent a lot of time stuck on a NJ Transit train that morning, but it was certainly better than any of the alternatives.
I had just started my PhD program at Rutgers a week before, 25 miles or so from Manhattan. I had heard about a plane hitting the tower before I went into a early class, but the scope of the event wasn't clear at that point. Someone came into class late and told us that both towers were hit by passenger jets. We carried on with the class, but I went home afterward as the university shut down, I think for the rest of the week. The weather was shockingly beautiful, and all I could think to do was to wash my car and listen to NPR.
posted by mollweide at 3:48 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
I had just started my PhD program at Rutgers a week before, 25 miles or so from Manhattan. I had heard about a plane hitting the tower before I went into a early class, but the scope of the event wasn't clear at that point. Someone came into class late and told us that both towers were hit by passenger jets. We carried on with the class, but I went home afterward as the university shut down, I think for the rest of the week. The weather was shockingly beautiful, and all I could think to do was to wash my car and listen to NPR.
posted by mollweide at 3:48 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
My office was on Broadway literally next to the Trinity Church graveyard. Amazingly, my partner knew from the first plane that this was not going to end well and he immediately told all 50 or so of us to leave, get out of the area. Many of the traders refused at first because they had positions. Before that office, I worked in the Trade Center, south tower. I cannot tell you how many times I was up at Windows on the World for analyst meetings or corporate (read free!) dinners. It was eerie to see small sightseeing tourist planes fly by BELOW you.
I lost 4 friends that day. Cantor Fitz traders and a high school friend on a lower but still upper floor. The stories of these guys leaving voice mails for their wives and children saying it was over still make me tear up.
Two days after 9/11 I got a police escort down to my office so I could recover some items. The policeman who drove me, I think from Houston Street, kept saying are you sure, you will not be able to unsee it. I said, I had no choice. He was right. We drove down Broadway past the still smoking pile. He waited while I grabbed all the documents and people's personal affects I could carry in the one box I was given. They gave me a hard hat to wear in the building which I still have.
I went to HS with a bunch of policemen and firemen who worked the pile for months afterwards. Speaking to them at a HS reunion was incredible in both tragically sad ways and in some uplifting ways. Their devotion to their fallen brethren was incredible.
I was born 20+ years after Pearl Harbor. About the same time we are from 9/11. Peral harbor was something old people spoke about and when I got old enough I read about it in my history books. Kids born in the aughts, I think 1/3 of the world population was cited above, have no clue.
Never forget.
. (Huge Dot for all the victims here in NY, in DC, and in Shanksville.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:52 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
I lost 4 friends that day. Cantor Fitz traders and a high school friend on a lower but still upper floor. The stories of these guys leaving voice mails for their wives and children saying it was over still make me tear up.
Two days after 9/11 I got a police escort down to my office so I could recover some items. The policeman who drove me, I think from Houston Street, kept saying are you sure, you will not be able to unsee it. I said, I had no choice. He was right. We drove down Broadway past the still smoking pile. He waited while I grabbed all the documents and people's personal affects I could carry in the one box I was given. They gave me a hard hat to wear in the building which I still have.
I went to HS with a bunch of policemen and firemen who worked the pile for months afterwards. Speaking to them at a HS reunion was incredible in both tragically sad ways and in some uplifting ways. Their devotion to their fallen brethren was incredible.
I was born 20+ years after Pearl Harbor. About the same time we are from 9/11. Peral harbor was something old people spoke about and when I got old enough I read about it in my history books. Kids born in the aughts, I think 1/3 of the world population was cited above, have no clue.
Never forget.
. (Huge Dot for all the victims here in NY, in DC, and in Shanksville.)
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:52 PM on September 11 [5 favorites]
Tried watching the video...
Couldn't make it past the second plane coming in...
How are we so fucked up as a species that someone would choose to do this to other people...?
Kind of like the current I/P shit. How can you feel good about yourself while killing thousands of people?
.
posted by Windopaene at 4:08 PM on September 11
Couldn't make it past the second plane coming in...
How are we so fucked up as a species that someone would choose to do this to other people...?
Kind of like the current I/P shit. How can you feel good about yourself while killing thousands of people?
.
posted by Windopaene at 4:08 PM on September 11
Friends had just picked me up at Heathrow. We had driven to the countryside near Southhamptont and just stopped at an inn as my friends wanted to treat me to cottled tea. It was about 3:00PM there. The waitress who came to take our order noticed I was American and said, "Have you heard? Two planes flew into the Twin Towers" I had no idea what she was saying as I never knew that the were called "Twin Towers" I knew them as the World Trade Center.
She clarified what was going on? It was weird what happened next as I am not sure why...I can only attribute it to it being a yoga teacher at the time.
There's that rising feeling you get in your body after your first or second hit of weed. That rising sensation that spreads up and out and fills your skull. I had an accelerated version of that...like an elevator rising at full speed then reverse crashing into my gut.
I don't think I could finish the tea and asked if we could go home. Halfway there, I asked them to pull over into the wood so I could vomit. Turns out I was throwing up in the real "Hundred Acre Wood"
We didn't see the falls during real time. I remember watching and realizing the value of a stiff drink.
I had been in Ireland with others for a retreat. The facilitator was American. We had all gone our separate ways. Once I realized what was going on there was this primal urge to "group" behind some leadership. I realized then the value of embassies in foreign countries.
The strangest thing about "being out looking in" was the felt chaos of everything. From my vantage point it seemed like for three or four days there was no direction for the country. Government, media, military, all of it. It was similar to the chaos of the air controller that morning. No one could get a bead on anything. All of a sudden there was nothing to grab. It seemed around the 3rd or 4th day, a narrative was settled on and the country as a whole began to move in a direction. Didn't matter where.
It was like the curse of being a behemoth.
I saw during the Rodney King riots in early 90"s Los Angeles how quickly people are willing to give up their liberties when they are threatened. I remember thinking for this country, "Please don't go there" Please don't go there"
The thing that boggles my mind in Sliney's having to make the decision to shut down the air space. The more I take on leadership roles, the more I understand how important the term "secure the perimeter" is even on the smallest scale.
posted by goalyeehah at 4:13 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
She clarified what was going on? It was weird what happened next as I am not sure why...I can only attribute it to it being a yoga teacher at the time.
There's that rising feeling you get in your body after your first or second hit of weed. That rising sensation that spreads up and out and fills your skull. I had an accelerated version of that...like an elevator rising at full speed then reverse crashing into my gut.
I don't think I could finish the tea and asked if we could go home. Halfway there, I asked them to pull over into the wood so I could vomit. Turns out I was throwing up in the real "Hundred Acre Wood"
We didn't see the falls during real time. I remember watching and realizing the value of a stiff drink.
I had been in Ireland with others for a retreat. The facilitator was American. We had all gone our separate ways. Once I realized what was going on there was this primal urge to "group" behind some leadership. I realized then the value of embassies in foreign countries.
The strangest thing about "being out looking in" was the felt chaos of everything. From my vantage point it seemed like for three or four days there was no direction for the country. Government, media, military, all of it. It was similar to the chaos of the air controller that morning. No one could get a bead on anything. All of a sudden there was nothing to grab. It seemed around the 3rd or 4th day, a narrative was settled on and the country as a whole began to move in a direction. Didn't matter where.
It was like the curse of being a behemoth.
I saw during the Rodney King riots in early 90"s Los Angeles how quickly people are willing to give up their liberties when they are threatened. I remember thinking for this country, "Please don't go there" Please don't go there"
The thing that boggles my mind in Sliney's having to make the decision to shut down the air space. The more I take on leadership roles, the more I understand how important the term "secure the perimeter" is even on the smallest scale.
posted by goalyeehah at 4:13 PM on September 11 [2 favorites]
.
The day before, something crushing had happened to me, one of those significantly-bad-but-normative things that happens in life. I'd been reeling and feeling exceedingly disconnected from reality for about a day, so waking up (in Seattle) to the news that the WTC had been attacked was surreal on top of surreal.
I wasn't here then, so I only read the 9/11 thread years later. I think it's a very useful perspective on events as they unfolded. (I've also read many of the tangent threads that popped up that day and in the days following.) I reject wholeheartedly any criticism of that thread. The site has changed, but MetaFilter is both significantly better and significantly worse today than it was in 2001. I would urge the curious who have never read that thread to walk in with empathy for people shocked, suffering, grieving, and angry.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:23 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
The day before, something crushing had happened to me, one of those significantly-bad-but-normative things that happens in life. I'd been reeling and feeling exceedingly disconnected from reality for about a day, so waking up (in Seattle) to the news that the WTC had been attacked was surreal on top of surreal.
I wasn't here then, so I only read the 9/11 thread years later. I think it's a very useful perspective on events as they unfolded. (I've also read many of the tangent threads that popped up that day and in the days following.) I reject wholeheartedly any criticism of that thread. The site has changed, but MetaFilter is both significantly better and significantly worse today than it was in 2001. I would urge the curious who have never read that thread to walk in with empathy for people shocked, suffering, grieving, and angry.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:23 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]
« Older She's gonna keep on dancing at the Pink Pony Club | Exploration of an abandoned Texas Mall Newer »
. × 2977 at the WTC
. × hundreds of thousands in the wars that followed.
posted by lalochezia at 7:12 AM on September 11 [22 favorites]