From: Williams, Derek
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 1:14 PM
Subject: WTC - Derek Williams

Hello,

I am a Texan and I now live in New Jersey. I have been up a couple of times before I moved up here, looking for housing. I use to get goose bumps every time I went up the turnpike because as we neared the Newark Airport, I use to look to the east and out of haze, clear weather, rain, or snow, see the World Trade Center (WTC).

It "loomed" over the city - because it was soooo tall. Two giant silver blocks - kinda like when as a kid you work with legos (tm) and you ran out of the small pieces and were forced to use the big ones.

The buildings were so big that they almost looked out-of-place. I still marveled at the bravado that the architects had to build such large structures. Most days, I bet, the tops of the WTC were in the clouds.

Anyway, I've visited the Empire State building. On the ground floor is a directory of occupants. It's got to be 20 feet long 6 feet high - small print. Neat! I visited the top. Three elevators - first to like floor 12 (long time ago), second one to floor 86 - outside observatory, and the third one to the top - 102 stories - inside observatory. Neat!

Think about this: The Empire State building is shorter, more cone shaped and - there is only one of them!

I've never actually been higher than the ground floor at the WTC. But even there, it was massive. Wanted to go to the top observation - the line was too long for me. There was a restaurant on the top. Wanted to go there also. Never made it.

Now, here are some things that non-NY'ers probably didn't know. In between the building was a large plaza. People would hang out there, eating their lunch, talking on cell phones, and listening to live concerts - everyday. There were tons of people selling stuff all around towers - candy, hot dogs, pretzels, clothes, watches, etc. There were also other things there - newsstands, shoe shine, taxi cabs, etc. There were banks, atm's, pizza parlors, etc.

Also, the WTC was a subway stop. Now, when I mean subway stop, I don't mean the train stopped and you climbed the stairs to the street. No, I mean UNDER the WTC was a FULL subway system - a small Penn Station. Cars came from Uptown NY and New Jersey - both an endpoint and a starting point. You never entered the weather. The WTC was also on the waterfront, so there were ferries that also placed people in the towers and immediate area.

The biggest surprise for me was that there was a FULL shopping mall underneath the WTC also. Not fancy, up scaled furriers and business suit stores, but your regular drug stores, ice cream parlors, sandwich shops, etc. You could actually take the trains from New Jersey and never actually have to leave the building.

I have never worked in the WTC. The closest I've been was across the water in NJ - Jersey City. From the windows of my building, I could see both the Statue of Liberty and the WTC. I took the PATH train to come to work - the same one that went to the WTC. Except I got off two stops prior. I have visited it looking for work - to no avail. I figured, I'd take the first job, and then get use to the hustle and bustle, and then expand my wings.

Now, that day, I was going to work here in NJ (don't work in Jersey City anymore), and the people on the radio said that something strange was happening - I didn't think twice about it. Then the information started to flow in slowly, but surely. I HATE it when the news people don't know what exactly is happening, and they feel free to sprout the first thing that they hear hoping that they are right.

• a plane had crashed into the WTC (I'm thinking Cessna)
• a big plane had crashed (I'm now thinking commuter plane)
• a Boeing plane had crashed (I'm thinking 737?!?! Wow, that's news!)
• No, a BIG plane had crashed - Boeing 757/767! D&$#@! Boy, what in the world happened? Pilot fainted? Malfunction of the equipment?
• More information: ANOTHER PLANE crashed? Was it trying to avoid the first plane? Did it get caught in the wake turbulence?
• Two BIG planes hit EACH tower. Each tower is ablaze! OK, something weird is happenning.

I had a 10 am meeting that morning with staff in my manager's office. His email kept binging, but he continued the meeting. I thought I heard my cell phone go off (it was in my office), but we continued (I have a pager if it's important). After the meeting, I return to my office to see that we are closing for the rest of the day. Hmm.

• ANOTHER PLANE HIT THE PENTAGON!! Ok, we are under attack. It is a good thing that I live in NJ, and not NY.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Just like I heard on the news, I had the same conversation on the phone:

• Derek, the WTC has collapsed.
• The part where the plane crashed?
• No, the WHOLE building.

Nah, I thought. I wasn't here when the WTC was bombed, but the bomb was placed at the bottom of the building - the MAIN structure, and it still didn't come down.

• Are you talking about the one that the bomb hurt a couple of years ago?
• No, BOTH towers have come down.

OK, I thought. Maybe they broke off at the point of impact. Well, they will be shorter, until they can fix it.

Then I arrived home and saw the footage on the TV:

- TWO BIG PLANES - FULL OF PEOPLE - TWO LARGE FIREBALLS - PEOPLE JUMPING FROM THE BUILDINGS - FIRST BUILDING COLLAPSING FROM TOP TO BOTTOM - SECOND BUILDING COLLAPSING FROM TOP TO BOTTOM - PART OF THE PENTAGON COLLAPSED - LARGE HOLE IN THE GROUND WHERE #4 PLANE FULL OF PEOPLE HIT THE GROUND - Knowledge about everything I said above. 

Forward if you want.