At 8:45 AM on 9/11, I woke up to a loud boom. I lived on John St. near the WTC. I didn't check the news or go online. I showered, got dressed and hoped not to be too late for a 9AM meeting at WTC 6. I didn't know what was going on. I took this picture of the North Tower a few min before the South Tower collapsed.

A Different Start to an Awful Day

Unlike most mornings, I didn’t have time to watch the news.

The walk down John Street to the WTC was surreal that day.

I had attributed the the noise to a crane accident or some other construction noise.

As I got closer to the WTC, people were more and more upset: there were people in tears, lining up to get on a payphone, and huddling around parked cars listening to the news. It was an odd scene.

Finally, I stopped someone and asked what was going on. She pointed skyward and I looked up and saw this.

My first thought was how could they get a bomb up there.  It must just be a fire.

You’ll notice that, from this angle, one couldn’t see that the South Tower was on fire.

I had no idea what was going on.

Not knowing the world was changing, I had assumed that my meeting was still on. I walked to my meeting WTC6.

It wasn’t until a police barricade stopped me that I had another chance to stop and take pictures.

A few minutes later, I heard a loud boom come from the South Tower, which, from where I stood, didn’t look like it was on fire.

The next thing I knew it looked like the South Tower was falling towards me.  Before I knew it, I was running for my life as what looked like a three story dust cloud was racing towards me.

What happened next could be only described as a near-death experience.

One day, I will write more about the day, but that day is not today.

It’s a nice day out and it’s time to play with my dogs in the woods behind our house