911 - NYC

My wife, who was living in our Atlanta home, called me moments after the first airliner crash. In a monotone voice "Are you watching TV", she asked? No, I am reading the paper. Turn on the news, you will not believe what is happening.

I watched TV as I gathered up my camera, video camera and lenses. I took the elevator down 34 floors. The lobby was quite, no one was talking. As I entered the street on 50th street things seemed normal until I tried to wave down a cab. There were none going South and the ones headed North were full.

I started the 6 mile walk down 8th avenue. It was only a few blocks to the first fire station. The doors were open but nobody was there. I kept on walking at a quick pace. I could see the Empire State building as I walked, the towers were too far away. I did not see smoke for a long time. I kept looking over to the Empire State building thinking it might be next. I knew the second plane had hit so anything seemed possible at this point.

I would occasionally stop as various emergency trucks and cars would pass by with lights and sirens blasting. The further south I went I noticed that cars were no longer moving on the streets. The people were mostly moving against me as they were trying to get away from the towers. It was very strange as no one was talking. No one had any expressions on their face. It was like they were in a trance. No one was running. There were no tears or sweat or dirty faces yet. I was still to far away. It took me about 2 hours to arrive at the towers. Actually, I got within about four blocks of the towers and that seemed plenty close.

As you will see from my photos, NYC was a very different place that day. The best way to describe it is to say, it was like being on a movie set. Nothing seemed real but everything was real. Surreal may be the best word for it.

I remained in the Tribeca area most of that day and at about 6 pm I began the walk back. i was really tired, I must have walked 10 miles so far. Another photographer from the NY Times offered me a ride back North to the NY Times building. He invited me to the photo desk as he wanted to see if I had any photos they might use. Those are the last photos in this group.

On Thursday and Friday, I walked about different parts of South Manhattan. You can see these photos in a different gallery.

This day changed my entire life. It was an immediate change for thousands. Firefighters, people in the towers and surrounding buildings, families of people who worked and lived in lower Manhattan. But like so many others who made their living in NYC just beyond the clouds of dust, I too did not realize I would become a victim. For months NYC was stagnated. I watched Ogilvy, one of the largest ad agencies in NYC, start to vacate  several floors of their highrise. My bedroom window was directly across the street. Companies shutdown, left town and cut back on employees and spending. It took nearly two years for this town to return to normal if it ever did.