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The PATH train (more like a subway, it goes under the Hudson river) connects NJ and NY.
The North Tower had been hit by the time my train pulled into the station. This train was the next to last one to make it to the WTC. The air smelled of fuel and the station was eerily empty. As we went up the large set of escalators that led to the ground floor and mall, we saw that the area had been already evacuated and was filled with smoke.
We were guided outside and I finally got a look at the bldg. There was a huge hole and black smoke poured out of it. I asked someone what had happened and she said that a plane had hit it. I barely had time to wonder what kind of pilot couldn't miss the tower on a clear day, when the crowd screamed, to our horror we saw people jumping out of the bldg. That's the sight that I will never forget and still affects me. I can't stand to see a tall bldg. on fire, I always expect someone to be jumping from the windows.
I walked parallel to the towers (the side streets were blocked by people and emergency vehicles) when someone yelled "a plane". I had barely passed the main doors of the Hilton Millennium Hotel. I looked up and a jetliner was flying along Liberty St. at an angle, otherwise the wing span couldn't fit the width of the street. All I could see was the bright blue belly of the plane (it turned out to be the United plane) as it flew at full speed into the side of the South Tower. All hell broke lose and I thought that we were going to die as debris flew in every direction. Many of us ran into the Hilton and their staff guided us through another door and kept yelling at people to "go to Broadway". Some people were so stunned that they didn't even know where they were standing.
I went to my job 4 blocks away. There were sheets of paper covering the streets from one river to the other. Also, there were many women's shoes that had been left behind. At work we still had electricity, internet service and working telephones. A little while later the sky turned pitch black as the South Tower collapsed, minutes later it was repeated when the North Tower fell too. When the sky cleared, we could see that everything was covered in dust: people, cars, bldgs. I stayed at work until the ferries starting taking people back to NJ around noon.
This year it hit me hard, other years I try to be out of the country on this day. I can see the WTC right now as I type this and know that the victim's names are still being read, despite the pouring rain.
My tiny town of Hoboken lost more people than any other city in NJ. It lost over 50 people, the youngest was 22 and the oldest was in his early fifties. I knew one of them.
It's a sad day.
:cry:
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