Where and what were you doing on 9/11/2001?

[Deleted Bruce 182381]

I was living in the Cooper Square neighborhood in downtown Manhattan, having breakfast and watching the morning news when the 1st plane struck a Tower. It was Mayoral Elections Day and I was about to go cast my vote for Rudy Giulliani. My first thought after seeing the hole and smoke was "that's no small private plane that accidentally crashed into the tower", as the news was reporting. Then they were urging everyone in the other tower to stay put and I started yelling that everyone should immediately abandon the whole area. Shortly after, the 2nd plane struck and I screamed "I told you all to leave", but many stayed and needlessly perished. It was one of the saddest days of my life.

Today I was watching, probably for the 30th time, the Armagaedon movie. In the begining scenes where they show the meteor showers hitting NYC, they showed one of the twin towers impacted by a meteorite. This movie came out in 1998 and now I wonder if that scene inspired the 9/11 attack that destroyed the towers. The world has gone sideways ever since 9/11/2001. Your thoughts?

 

[Isaac]

I was with my headset on doing Collections work in a call center and we gathered round the TV..

 

[pbaldy]

I lived in NV but was in Monterey, CA with my wife at a small gathering of her family. We were all talking, playing cards and such with no TV or radio on. We didn't find out about it until we got in the car to head home and heard about it on the radio. This would have been 5-6 hours after it happened. We were glued to the radio all the way home, trying to get our heads around the reality of what had happened.

 

[RonPaii]

I was at work. One of office managers pulled up the new feed after the 1st hit. It was very strange how quite it was outside with no air traffic overhead.

 

[Isaac]

What I wish is that I could say where I was and what I was doing when the Turkey-Syria earthquake or Storm Daniel occurred, but I'm selfishly much more concerned about my own country than others - I feel that's a moral failing on my part, I ought to value human life the same across the world when it comes to that 'ache' inside you upon hearing people died generally speaking. I'm sure my plight is common to many, but still ......

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I was at work in the offices of the Navy Enterprise Data Center New Orleans when suddenly someone in the break room called out something that seemed like someone had been hurt. I ran to see if I could assist one of my co-workers - but that wasn't the cause of the sudden scream. We watched as the 2nd plane hit and we watched as the buildings collapsed. After that, I went back to my desk and put myself on autopilot, tending to routine duties on my assigned machine. Although I have no idea (to this day) what, if any, transactions were spurred by those events, I know that I kept the machine running cleanly in case someone needed to perform a Navy Reserve personnel function. It wasn't until later that I learned that no Navy offices were in the twin towers but that the Pentagon HAD been hit as well. Some Army and Navy offices WERE affected, though there was a renovation project under way where the worst damage occurred.

 

[Cotswold]

At home.
As a structural engineer I was surprised how they could collapse into themselves so quickly. Later I understood it was to do with the desire for the fastest lifts/elevators that left them vulnerable. Mind you, I don't believe that any building could withstand that level of force.

 

[NauticalGent]

As a structural engineer I was surprised how they could collapse into themselves so quickly

 

[NauticalGent]

And building #7...?

 

[NauticalGent]

Of course...

 

[moke123]

I was in my office on Long Island. We all had TVs in our offices and watched it all unfold. We could see and smell the smoke outside.
The Port Authority was one of my clients and I was due to be there the following day. It took me weeks to figure out who survived. I still use my folder that used to be covered in "visitor" stickers from the towers . I knew about a dozen people who died. My next door neighbor was a survivor. She made it out before the collapse. The saddest thing were our schools who wouldn't release kids to go home because they had no way of knowing if the kids had parents to go home to.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The saddest thing were our schools who wouldn't release kids to go home because they had no way of knowing if the kids had parents to go home to.

A very sad - but in a way, very necessary - decision. I perhaps could have made that decision if it had been mine to make. The task I would NOT have wanted was to explain to a school-aged child that his/her parents were killed by terrorists acting inside the USA. That might have been beyond my ability to maintain emotional balance.

 

[moke123]

We had a NYC fireman who did work for us who worked on the fireboat. He was transporting people across the river to NJ. His captain had gone into the towers and was one of the people they played the radio transmissions from on the news. Another friend wound up with a bull dozer and helped with some digging. He had tried getting downtown and was stopped by police near a bull dozer and the cop asked him if it was his and he said yes. He was able to start it and the cops let him through. At one point he got a flat tire and drove it all the way to a friends taxi garage on 58th street to have it fixed. Never did get caught for stealing it.

I also visited the site a few times afterward. We had a nyc fire dept parking permit which got us entry everywhere, and free parking.

 

[moke123]

A very sad - but in a way, very necessary - decision. I perhaps could have made that decision if it had been mine to make. The task I would NOT have wanted was to explain to a school-aged child that his/her parents were killed by terrorists acting inside the USA. That might have been beyond my ability to maintain emotional balance.

My daughters school was right around the corner from our house and my wife went to get her and wound up staying all day to help with the kids. It wasn't only that some parents died but it was nearly impossible to get home from Manhattan that day so it left a lot of kids in limbo.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

He had tried getting downtown and was stopped by police near a bull dozer and the cop asked him if it was his and he said yes. He was able to start it and the cops let him through. At one point he got a flat tire and drove it all the way to a friends taxi garage on 58th street to have it fixed. Never did get caught for stealing it.

OK, you KNOW it has to be asked... what did he do with a stolen bulldozer?

 

[CJ_London]

Reminds me of the guy who worked in a building yard. Every evening he left with his lunch box, tools and work clothes in a wheel barrow. Security regularly checked and verified all this stuff was his.

Turned out he was stealing wheel barrows

 

[moke123]

OK, you KNOW it has to be asked... what did he do with a stolen bulldozer?

He pushed stuff around at ground zero for a while and then left it there. Things were a little chaotic so I don't think anyone was really looking for it.

BTW, He had never driven one before either.

 

[ColinEssex]

I've no idea. There's two things to this.
1) where were you when it was happening?
2) when did you hear about it?

Most American incidents happen at (UK) night time. So what day was it? And what time (UK) did it happen? To be honest, I don't remember. I suspect it made the papers here next day. I don't usually watch the TV news - too miserable.
Col

 

[The_Doc_Man]

As to "when" - The terrorist attack happened starting at 08:46 Eastern Daylight Savings (USA) Time zone on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. USA Eastern Daylight Savings time zone is 4 hours after Greenwich mean time, so that means it would have been just after Noon, London time (if I did that right.) It was televised as a network news event. We had a TV in our "break room" so someone heard the news bulletin almost immediately and called us in.

I heard about the first plane hitting the north tower (of the World Trade Center's two towers) within a few minutes of it actually happening. The second plane hit the South tower shortly thereafter, and a plane hit the Pentagon. A fourth plane crash-landed in Pennsylvania and was thought to have been aimed at either the Capitol building or the White House in Washington, DC. (Which of those two was the target is not clear.) The passengers overpowered the highjackers but could not safely land the plane.

Many of us have already answered the "where" part of your question. My business day started at 07:00 so I was in my place of work, as described in an earlier post.

 

[Cotswold]

Steel becomes very pliable when subjected to long_term intensive heat from burning jet fuel. One tower withstood the heat for almost an hour, the other lasted almost two hours. Another factor was where the impacts occurred. The lower the impact, the heavier the weight load. The new tower's upper structure was built using a cocoon design made of titanium alloy, which is supposed to withstand a commercial jet's impact. I periodically visited the construction site of the new tower and was amazed at how fast it was completed.

Once mild steel reaches a cherry heat it will begin to be easier to work. Most forging can happen at between 1000ºc and 1200ºc, with melting occurring around 1400ºc. According to Isaac Newton, force increases by the square of the speed. So faster = more force. Strength of materials works in the same way. Doubling the thickness of a steel bar from 10mm to 20mm doesn't double its weight bearing qualities, or resistance to bending. They will increase by the square of the thickness

I understood that in order to reduce, or remove the need for changing lifts part way up the towers, a system of a main central core of beams was supported by joining it to the outer structure with a novel design. When the planes hit at the top floors the force and the heat weakened the outer supporting intermediate structure that was designed to support just one floor. When the weight of higher floors dropped to the ones below the combined weight was unsupportable. The cascade effect of floors dropping was inevitable causing the vertical collapse. That is my understanding of the collapsing towers.
It is unclear to me how any building could withstand the impact of a jet plane.