That is how my friend Bob got home that day. He worked in the World Financial Center tower across the street. The impact and explosion of the first jet Hitting the North tower shook the ground hard enough that up on the 34th floor of his building, they thought they were experiencing an earthquake. He led a large group of coworkers down the stairs to the street, and right after he got to the sidewalk, he heard a jet real loud and looked up just in time to see the second jet go in to the South tower right above him. At first he had the weird thought that they must be filming a movie, and it took him a minute to realize what was happening. He headed for the ferry landings to the south, but they were already overrun with people, so he headed over to the Westside Highway and started to walk north until he found a yacht owner who was ferrying people over to the Jersey side of the Hudson. From there he was able to catch a series of buses and trains to get home.
But for him the worst was hearing the loud crashes overhead when he was out on the street by the towers, and not realizing at first that it was the bodies of people who had jumped hitting on the roofs above him, and then looking up and seeing them falling.
In this picture, smoke from the collapsed north tower is engulfing his building, which collapsed later that afternoon.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
