Every September, here on the podcast we feature a guest who has a personal experience with 9/11.
Most people remember exactly where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001, when terrorists struck the US using hijacked airplanes. It was a dark day for this country.
This month, What Was That Like is publishing a 3-part series titled one September morning. In each episode, you’ll hear someone telling their personal story about what they experienced on that day. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode.
Today, in the first episode of the series, we’ll hear from Joan. She and her husband lived in lower Manhattan. On the morning of 9/11, Joan was at work a few miles away from the disaster. But her husband was still at home, just a block from the Twin Towers, and he had no idea what had just happened.
Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:
https://WhatWasThatLike.com/188
Graphics for this episode by Bob Bretz. Transcription was done by James Lai.
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Episode transcript (download transcript PDF):
Every September, here on the podcast we feature a guest who has a personal experience with 9/11.
Most people remember exactly where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001, when terrorists struck the US using hijacked airplanes. It was a dark day for this country.
This month, What Was That Like is publishing a 3-part series titled one September morning. In each episode, you’ll hear someone telling their personal story about what they experienced on that day. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe and follow the show so you don’t miss an episode.
Today, in the first episode of the series, we’ll hear from Joan. She and her husband lived in lower Manhattan. On the morning of 9/11, Joan was at work a few miles away from the disaster. But her husband was still at home, just a block from the Twin Towers, and he had no idea what had just happened.
My name is Joan and I am a docent of the 9/11 Tribute Museum in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Today, I’d like to tell you a little bit about My 9/11 story. I am a resident of Lower Manhattan. I live in a neighborhood called Battery Park City. My husband and I moved into this neighborhood in 1998. Before then, we were living in a suburb of New York City called Queens, about 10 miles from Manhattan. We were both spending most of our time in the city because we both had careers here, so we decided we would sell our home in Queens and move to Lower Manhattan. So, in 1998, my husband and I moved to Battery Park City and we had the good fortune of living one block west of the World Trade Center. When I walked out of my apartment building, when I looked outside of my living room and bedroom window, I had an unbelievable view of the World Trade Center, and I can say that those buildings were absolutely beautiful. I always felt comfortable living in the shadow of the towers.
On the morning of September 11th, I woke up very early, which is unusual for me. I’m a night person, so I tend to get up later in the morning. But on that morning, I woke up early. I was getting ready to go on vacation that week, so I decided, “You know what? Let me just get up and get ready for work. I’ll get into the office early and do what I have to do,” knowing that I was planning for my vacation and certain things had to get done before I left for vacation. So I got up, showered, got dressed, and I ran off to work.
Now, at the time of September 11th, my employer had already moved us to Jersey City, so I was no longer working in Manhattan. Though I was living here, I had a short commute to Jersey City, New Jersey, which is on the other side of the Hudson River. I indicated that I was very fortunate to live in the shadow of the towers. Well, I was also very fortunate to work in a place that, when I looked outside of my office window, I had an amazing view of Lower Manhattan. I was on Washington Boulevard. There was no obstruction in front of me. There were no buildings in front of me. All I saw out of my office window was the Hudson River and beautiful Lower Manhattan on the other side. Those towers were in my line of sight. What I didn’t realize that morning was that I was going to have a front-row seat to the worst attack on US soil.
My commute that morning was– I actually walked through the World Financial Center – which are two business buildings right here in Lower Manhattan – and I walked over a footbridge called the North Bridge which connected the World Financial Center Winter Garden with the World Trade Center on the other side of the West Side Highway. I went over the bridge, went down into the World Trade Center, went all the way down into the lower level, and boarded a train – the Port Authority Trans-Hudson line or we call it here, the PATH train.
I took the PATH train over to Jersey City – two stops – got to my office at about 8:15 AM, got my coffee, did my normal morning ritual of greeting a couple of people, and then I went into a conference room to start my work day. My papers were spread all over the desk in the conference room and one of my colleagues joined me, and we started our workday. At 8.46 AM, I heard a very loud sound – engines roaring. I looked up into the window. I saw a commercial jet. I could actually see the stripes on the side of the jet. More importantly, I could hear those engines roaring and I watched as that plane headed right for the North Tower. Now that would be American Airlines flight 11, which penetrated the North Tower at 8.46 AM.
I saw that plane. I never took my eyes off that plane. I remember thinking, “Why isn’t it going around the tower?” I noticed that there was no attempt to divert the tower and I watched as American Airlines Flight 11 struck the tower – got swallowed up into the tower. I remembered that gaping hole at the top – black smoke pouring out of the tower – and frankly, what I remember most vividly besides that were the screams from my colleagues who were in the building on that Tuesday morning. There were many of us in the office that day and many of us had seen this situation and we knew that something was not right.
I grabbed the phone in the conference room and I called my husband. Now, I looked at my watch – 8.47. I knew that my husband was still at home because he works in Lower Manhattan and he walks to work every day. He usually leaves about 9.15, so I knew that he would still be home. When he picked up the phone, I was frantic. I said to him, “Did you see what just happened?” My husband didn’t know what happened. He didn’t see it. He didn’t hear it. He was getting ready to go to work that morning, so he was not focused on what was going on outside. He was basically just getting himself ready. He ran up to the window, looked up, and saw what I had described to him. I said to him at that moment, “I think we’ve been attacked.”
Now I have to tell you, I’m not psychic. I had no insider information. I simply had what I saw. With my own two eyes, I saw a commercial jet approach the tower. No attempt to divert. I know that pilots are not trained to crash their aircraft into skyscrapers. That’s not what they do – not to mention that the Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in Manhattan, which defined our Lower Manhattan skyline. You could not miss them. So, I was already thinking this had to be an attack. I didn’t have to guess much longer.
Now, the situation in my office was complete mayhem. We had people crying, screaming, breaking down. Keep in mind, there were people in my office who had family members, friends, and loved ones who worked in the towers. As we saw what happened, we knew that people had died. We knew that the situation was bad.
Just as we were trying to grapple with this, a second plane flew right over my building in Jersey City. We heard it first. It was flying very low. It flew down towards the Statue of Liberty, made a sharp turn over the statue, and then proceeded north. At 9.03 AM, that was United Airlines Flight 175 that struck the South Tower. I saw that too. Now, the world knew what I had surmised. My greatest fear had been realized here that we were under attack. I have to tell you, at that moment, my brain went into autopilot. I had only one thing in mind at that point and that was to call my husband and to get him out of here. I wanted him out. I wanted him out to safety.
When I called him from the conference room phone, he picked up and I did not have to say a word. This time, he was in a state of frenzy. He told me that, from my apartment window, he saw the explosion when the plane struck the tower. He told me that it was like an earthquake here. Everything was shaking. He said he saw things falling. I remember saying to him at that moment in a very stern tone, “Get out. Go south. Go West. Do whatever you have to do to get off the island.” I wanted my husband out of my apartment. I wanted him to go to safety and I was adamant about it.
When I hung up the phone with my husband. I had no idea what happened to him for over 7 hours. We lost touch with each other. I could not get a hold of him. There was no cell service, no phone service. Lower Manhattan was covered with a heavy white cloud. I could not see my building. I had no idea what was going on down here and I certainly could not get back. By the way, that heavy white cloud– a lot of people think that heavy white cloud was smoke and some of it might have been, but most of it wasn’t. Most of it was the toxins that came down from the towers when the two towers collapsed. By the way, that toxic cocktail – those toxins – are now responsible for over 2,000 deaths of first responders – rescue and recovery workers – who reported to the site after 9/11 to recover our site, to restore the site, to restore the city and, quite frankly, to restore a nation. I just want you all to know that people are still getting sick from what happened here on 9/11. 9/11 is not over.
One of my colleagues grabbed me. While this was all going on, my colleague, Andy, grabbed my arm and she said to me, “We have to evacuate from the office. You’re going with me.” And I have to tell you – I didn’t think of it at that time – that was truly my first experience with the human spirit, a beautiful act of kindness that someone was about to do for me. My friend, Andy, she took me with her. She opened up her home when we didn’t have a place to live.
Seven hours later, when my husband finally made contact with me, he was on the Jersey City side. He called and he took me to go and meet him. I remember seeing my husband for the first time he was alive. I was so grateful that he was alive. I looked into his eyes though and I have to tell you that I knew he would never be the same. He had seen things on that day that none of us should ever have to see. I remember saying to him, “What happened?” And he told me that he evacuated my apartment building. He got on a police tugboat eventually and he made it over to Jersey City.
His story is part of the boat lift story and I invite you to look at the YouTube video called The Boat Lift. The Boat Lift is the story of over 500,000 people who made it off the island of Manhattan on the morning of September 11th by boat. There were really only two ways to get off the island that morning. You could walk. Many people walked. They walked north. They walked east. They walked over bridges. The other way was to get off the island by boat. We will always be grateful to the private boaters, to the ferries who kept pulling up to the Manhattan shoreline and loading thousands and thousands of people on their boats and bringing them across to safety. My husband’s story– the boat lift.
That night after we met up, we weren’t able to get back home. So my friend, Andy, the angel that she is, opened up her home and her heart to us when we didn’t have a place to live and I will always be grateful to her for what she did for us. For the next several days, we wondered about what happened to our apartment.
Six days later, the Monday after September 11th, we were actually able to return and check the damage in our apartment. I knew I was in trouble. I made it down to my apartment through an open truck – it was like a caravan that carried several of us to our building. When I got out of the truck and I looked up at my building, I knew I was in trouble because the building was pretty messed up. The facade was damaged. I could see that many of the windows in the residential apartments were badly damaged. I walked up 15 flights of stairs in the pitch dark.
When I got to my landing, I walked up to my apartment door, I opened my apartment door, and that’s when my second 9/11 happened. All of my windows had been blown in. Everything I owned was covered with about an inch and a half of dust. The air in my apartment was very stagnant, very still, and very thick. I could actually cut it with a knife and I could see the light shining through from the window and you could see that heavy dust just lingering and hanging in the air.
I walked up to my living room window. I closed my eyes and I said to myself, “I’m going to open up my eyes and I’m going to see those two beautiful buildings just as they were.” But unfortunately, when I opened my eyes this time, that was not meant to be. What I saw instead was twisted steel, debris everywhere, as far as your eyes could see, a broken community. That’s when my second 9/11 happened.
All I could say to myself was, “How am I going to get my life back on track?” I will tell you, the next several months were tough. We went in and out of there several times to try to salvage what we could to clean up our stuff. I will tell you though that in those next couple of months, the strength of the human spirit really showed through for me and that is what restored my faith in humanity. I had a group of Southern Baptists who appeared at my door one day – an unbelievable group of people. All they wanted to do was to help us. They didn’t know us. They didn’t care. All they cared about was they wanted to help and that was the strength and beauty of the human spirit. That’s what really helped restore my faith in humanity.
You may be wondering, “Well, what happened to us? Did we decide to come back to Battery Park City? Did we move?” Well, I’m here to tell you that, for my husband and I, this was never a decision. In fact, this was much bigger than us. We knew that we had to return. In fact, though it was scary to return, it was even more scary not to return because not to return would have meant that we gave in to evil. There was no way that we were ever going to do that. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we’re about.
So, in February of 2002, my husband and I returned to Battery Park City. In fact, we returned to the exact location that we were in before 9/11. Gateway Plaza is the name of the community. We did not return to the same apartment and the reason for that is my apartment was very badly damaged and it was going to require some work and some time to get it back on track. So, we were offered a different apartment in the same community and we decided to return.
Returning was not without risk. The air quality here was not good. The area had a stigma. A lot of people were saying to us, please don’t go back there. It’s not safe. But you know what? Again, we decided that this was much bigger than us. After all, we needed to recognize the thousands of people who died on the morning of 9/11 – the 2,753 innocent people who died at the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. The 343 FDMI, the 23 police officers, the 37 Port Authority police officers– all of them were here to protect my community. So, my husband and I knew that we could not forget about them. I wasn’t about to forget about the thousands and thousands of people who descended on the World Trade Center site after 9/11 to restore the site, to restore a community, and, quite frankly, to restore the pride of a nation. So we felt that it was our obligation to come back.
In February of 2002, we did come back and I will always be proud of that decision. If I had to do it again, I would never do anything differently. What I’d like for you to take away from my story is this– live your life and be true to yourself. If there’s something special and important to you, make it known. Our lives here were wonderful and we were not going to give that up for anyone or anything. Since 9/11, I have chosen to be a seed of service, so I am a docent volunteer for the 9/11 Tribute Museum. I have done over 750 tours of the 9/11 National Memorial. My goal in doing that work is to make sure that people from all over the world never forget about what happened here on 9/11 and I hope that, in some way, you will take the message that I had delivered to you today, and you will share that with others in your own local community and do something special in your own local community. Be a seed of change, be a seed of service. There is no greater feeling in life than doing something special for someone else.
If you got something out of my story today, if you enjoyed this experience of listening to me, I also hope that you will support the 9/11 Tribute Museum by making a donation, whatever you can, to www.911tributemuseum.org. These programs are made possible through the donorship and sponsorship of all of our guests and our visitors, and we are so very grateful for anything and everything that is given to us so that we can keep these stories alive, and the spirit of all those who perished on the morning of September 11th alive.
Thank you so very much for giving me the opportunity to share what I consider to be a defining moment in my life. I hope you all stay safe and healthy. Enjoy your lives and have a wonderful day. Thank you.
Scott
You can get a full transcript of this episode at WhatWasThatLike.com/188.
Joan mentioned her work at the 911 Tribute Museum. Sadly, the physical location for that museum closed in 2022 due to financial hardship related to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the museum still offers virtual tours and lots of information. You can find all of that at the website – 911TributeMuseum.org.
One week from today, we’ll have part 2 in this 3-part series of 9/11 stories. In that episode, we’ll hear from Tim – he was a firefighter for 18 years in New York City, and he’s one of the people who were in charge on that day. I’m not exaggerating when I say this – it’s one of the most compelling 9/11 stories you will ever hear.
Enrique
Hi Scott, this is Enrique from Vermont. I started listening to your podcast, I’d say, a year or so ago and deeply enjoyed the stories. I also appreciate and respect the ways that you support and listen to all of your storytellers with the complexity and pain of many of your guests. You always truly come across as someone who cares and is respectful of them as human beings to their core and of the experiences they’ve had. I’ve really been particularly struck by your guests sharing stories about daughters who’ve been in abusive relationships. I know I have a 14-year-old daughter who is just beginning to enter the dating world and the more independent world without us and I am totally fearful. That said, the resources some of your storytellers have offered and the stories they’ve told to us parents to help prevent and be aware of some of the early signs of domestic and dating abuse and violence and emotional abuse is something I use for myself.
And also, really, I’ve connected to conversations that I’ve begun to have with her. So, Scott, you rock. In a country that feels really divided and filled with moments of greatness but a lot of moments of hate towards a variety of people and communities, I just cannot say enough about you. How your kind voice and sense of humor and care for others is appreciated and needed. Respect, Scott.
~Enrique.
Scott
Thanks very much Enrique! And if you’d like to leave a comment about any episode, or just the podcast in general, you can call the podcast voice mail line anytime day or night, at 727-386-9468.
And I do appreciate the compliments I get about the podcast, but I also want to come clean when I screw it up. And that’s what happened on the recent episode titled “Justine feared her brother”. I usually try to give a content warning up front if there’s any content that might be triggering to some listeners. Well, this episode had some pretty graphic descriptions of sexual violence, and I totally forgot to put that content warning up front. I have added the warning to the website in the episode notes, and I appreciate Reddit user NoIdentity2121, who brought this to my attention.
Graphics for this episode were created by Bob Bretz. Full episode transcription was created by James Lai.
And now we’re about to hear the Listener Story. If you’re new to the show, this is how we end every episode – with a story sent in by a listener. You can record a 5-10 minute personal story on your phone and email it to Scott@WhatWasThatLike.com, and you just might hear it on a future episode.
Today’s listener story is about knowing when to not get involved.
Stay safe, and I’ll see you back here in a week with part 2 of our 3-part series, one September morning.
(Listener story)
Hi Scott. My name is Corinne. I live in Louisiana. I wanted to tell a quick story that kind of resembled one of your raw audio stories that I heard not too long ago. Me and my now husband were just watching TV at his apartment outdoor kitchen thing one morning and we, all of a sudden, heard a commotion. We looked out the door and it was a couple in their car. They had obviously lost something but they were yelling and he was getting violent with her, so we stepped out. The guy got out of the car and started yelling at my now-husband saying, “Go back in the house! Go back in the house!” and really just acting like he was going to hurt us if we didn’t go back in the house and mind our own business.
But he was clearly hurting this young woman and I felt so bad for her. Well, then, my now husband, Jesse, he went inside – we went inside – and he got his firearm. I stopped him though because I was like, “No, it’s not worth all that.” He wanted to go outside and help the young woman but I was just like, “Pulling out your firearm and things is not going to really help. It’s just going to make everything worse.” So I stopped him from doing that. But it was just such a crazy moment and I felt so bad for this young woman. I wanted to go hug her and tell her, “You’re worth way more than that. Please find a man that actually appreciates you and loves you.” But I still, to this day, don’t know how that ended up. They were gone a few minutes later and nothing really came of it for us. I just hope that young woman left him eventually and was safe.