I was getting breakfast in the college cafeteria at my college campus. This other student and I had become good friends, and we would always go to have breakfast together.  Scrambled Eggs and Toast.. He was a bit older than me, but smart and I always looked up to him as an ideal student

 
I saw some folks staring at the TVs in the cafeteria - the TVs that usually only played college news. I wondered what was going on, but didn't pay too much attention initially. A bit later I saw plane crashing into the building. At first glance, I thought it was a movie..  Then at some point, I heard about the Pentagon crash and another crash in Pennsylvania.  

 
I didn't have a whole lot of emotions about 9/11 initially. I just remember feeling numb.. Real numb..

-- Modified on 9/11/2021 2:17:32 AM

I was in heavy traffic..South of Boston..driving North to a Board meeting at 9:30AM. After 70 minutes I had only driven about 25 miles. I gave up & called the organizer. I pulled off the expressway & into a Dunkin Donuts.. it was crowded.. a TV on the wall. I was standing in line & saw the 1st plane hit the tower. The place went silent. Then the 2nd plane hit. I left and drove to my office. No one was working. Everyone was in the lunch room watching the TV there. I called my brother. He was in his office at Harvard.. in their office tower in Harvard Square. I told him to get out of there. An office tower at Harvard U was an attractive target. I'll never forget it.

called me to say that she was sitting on a plane that was to take her to me, but got told that the flight was on hold for some mysterious reason that the airlines refused to divulge.

 
When I got to my destination, I saw the TV reports and called her back to report what had happened.

In a united airlines flight to the west coast.  The pilot came on and said air traffic ordered him to land at the nearest airport and he did not know why.

Turned on the TV and saw a shot of the North Tower with a hole in it and smoke pouring out. Then I saw a live shot of the second plane hitting the South Tower and knew it was a terror attack. I walked to the windows of our office area which had a great view down Long Island Sound to Manhattan. It was a clear day and I could see both towers, about the size of matchsticks. They looked like smokestacks. I called my ex to see if she'd heard from our son, who was working uptown. She said he was OK and trying to get out of the city. Just then, both towers started to collapse. I remember telling her, "You just watched 3,000 people die."

Class started around 8:15am and as we were getting in the swing of things, I distinctly remember hearing the radio turn off, my teacher telling us to keep working, and then watching her walk out into the pod with some of the other teachers. At the time, all of the classrooms had windows along the wall that looked out into the pod area so I could see their faces. The principal came by, started talking to them, and I watched them all basically shake it off and "buck up". Before we dismissed for lunch, I asked her privately what had happened and she just grinned and said it was nothing to worry about. Before class ended for the day, the principal came over the intercom and told us all that after school activities had been cancelled and that we all needed to go straight home. When I got home, that's when I learned what happened. One of my little brothers was in Kindergarten and didn't really understand the concept of "rewind/replay" so he thought it kept happening over and over again.  

 
Years later, I saw my teacher from that day at the grocery story. She told me that they were instructed to continue on as if nothing had happened. The principal felt that 1) we needed to learn about this from our family members and 2) we all deserved one more day to just be innocent and oblivious to the cruelty of the world at large. The administration then called at least one parent for every single student to let them know how the school was handling it.

My mother and two sisters lived in New York. I could not reach them by phone for about 4 hours. One sister whom lived near the World Trade Center had to walk about four hours to get to my mother and other sister. That sister developed pulmonary problems from exposure on that day.  

One thing rarely reported was the stench that permeated the area for some days - the sickly sweet smell of burning bodies. As I was not there I can only rely on what my family members described.

...$$$$$$$$$$$$ WALLET $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

From my office tower. Made it home by noon and waited for the rest of my family to arrive while watching the events unfold.

She’d have been in the collapsed Building 7. As it was, when she arrived? she told me she saw people jumping out of the windows of a burning building and she was able to get back on the subway before it shut down.

Around 2000 I got to know the folks who are now www.yourstrulynyc.com .  They got through the  
post-9/11/2001 troubles, and recession, in NYC and somehow are still around. Blessings to our
firefighters, but thanks for "your" memories, "yours truly."

I was at Ground Zero.

I was in the Pentagon that morning, heard and felt the crash even though I was on the river side in the D ring.

I was on the phone with my step-father as he was telling me in real time.  "Something is going on and people are leaping from the twin towers"  a few minutes later, everyone in my dept. had heard the news and all 50 of us were packed in a meeting room around a TV.  We watched in horror as the first tower came down, then the 2nd.  Some of my friends with small children had to leave and go pick up and check on their children.  I was in shock and disbelief the rest of the day.  We believed America was under attack, and we were 9/11/01.  I will never forget the images from my mind.  Thank you for letting me share.  Maddie

The crashes and collapses happened Between 2:46 and 4:28 am my time.  I didn’t know anything until hours later.

It was about 2pm and someone yelled across our open plan office ‘a plane has crashed into one of the twin towers’  

Someone went to the conference room and turned on the TV. Watched it for about 3 hrs before driving home in shock

I’ll never forget the breaking news interruption on the radio on the drive home- it was Tony Blair
He said something about terrorism and then ‘ if you are wondering if we are behind America at the time they most need us the answer is no’
Then he went silent and I was mortified  
Then he finished ‘We are right by their side’
The only good speech he ever made. He most certainly spoke for the vast majority of us

It was only a few months later that I visited Boston for the first time. Logan airport was still a very sombre place  

A customs officer asked me if I was from the UK and I said yes. He said ‘God bless you and Tony Blair for being our friends. Not many are’ I can still picture his face and the hurt and fear in his eyes…
3 months later I moved to Boston and stayed there for 10 years  

We will not forget x

I was at work in the NW burbs here in Chicago checking my email when I heard the news about the first plane crashing into the WTC tower.  We didn't realize it was a terrorist attack until we heard about the 2nd plane.  Work came to a stop and we were all glued to the TV that they set up in our cafeteria.  Our company had some employees working in Manhattan so we were all concerned about their safety too, but we didn't find out that they were okay until much later since no one could get through to anyone out there.

 
Here in Chicago, they were afraid downtown might be a target considering all of the skyscrapers that we have so many were evacuated and downtown became pretty much a ghost town.  Driving home from work later that day was really surreal, since there were no planes in the air and it was dead quiet outside.  Considering that OHare International airport was only a few miles from our facility, there was always lots of air traffic in the sky on a normal day.  The only aircrafts in the air were a few military helicopters which I saw heading towards the downtown area.

 
Needless to say, I'm reminded of 9/11 every time I travel by air and have to deal with those TSA security check points.