20th anniversary today of 9/11

[Newportnobby]

It's difficult to find the right words but I just want all Americans to know this bloke typing them is with them in heart and soul. Several channels have been showing programmes over the last week or so but today is the day I wish you all the very best. Be strong.

[Malc]

I always know where I was on the 11th September 2001. I watched it unfold on a TV in the foyer of Television Centre where I was working. A terrible tragedy.

[Railwaygun]

I was on a train to the North and suddenly everyone was on their phones. I rang my friend on holiday in Norwich and told her to find a TV shop and see what was happening.

I'm trying to pluck up courage to watch one of the documentaries  currently being shown

RIP

[scottmitchell74]

It's difficult to find the right words but I just want all Americans to know this bloke typing them is with them in heart and soul. Several channels have been showing programmes over the last week or so but today is the day I wish you all the very best. Be strong.

I appreciate this greatly. I was on duty at the fire station when my wife called to tell me to turn on the TV. The vividness of the memory makes it seem like a year ago not 20.

[Jon898]

It's one of those events where, if you lived through it, you'll remember where you were.

Couple of vignettes from that day:

I was in a construction trailer 10 miles away participating in a progress meeting when a site engineer came in and told us a small plane (sic) had hit a tower.  A few minutes later he came back and said another plane had hit the other tower.  By the time we had climbed to the top of the building to see what was happening, the towers were gone leaving a huge cloud in their place.  The VP in charge of the meeting (former F14 pilot) declared the country under attack and cancelled the rest of the meeting.

One of my former architects was working in the Towers and escaped because he was in the lobby waiting to escort a visitor when what he described as a ball of flame came out of the elevators, suggesting it would be a good idea to "get out now".

Another of my former engineers was also working in the Towers but wasn't feeling so good that day, so went down to the cafeteria several floors below her normal work floor.  After the hit, she took the stairs down and was one of the last people out - not many from her floor made it.

Finally, a friend was driving to the same construction site for a later meeting when he noticed what he described as a "large plane moving very fast and very low" go over him.  At the time he thought it was a go-around from Newark airport, but realised it was one of the planes.

So many people all over this huge country lost someone they knew; we had a neighbour killed even though we lived in Pennsylvania, and a close friend's aunt was on flight 93.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Jon

[Newportnobby]

We had taken Mother to Madeira as a birthday treat. It was our second day there and we'd just come back from a morning in Funchal. A beautiful day and I couldn't understand why the pool etc was empty and so many TVs were on in peoples' rooms. I soon found out. To say I was shocked would be a massive understatement but I couldn't help but watch as the whole horror unfolded.
One of the most interesting TV progs was the entire thing as seen from President Bush's day on 11th September - what he was doing, how he was given the news, how he reacted along with his protection detail etc. and how he finally got back to New York despite advice to the contrary.

[ShakyZZR]

My Mam 'n' Dad were on holiday stateside at my Aunts. They had flown to Hawaii forra few days and were on a plane back to Colorado as the planes hit. We were chewing our fingers off waiting to find out if they'd landed OK 

[Trainfish]

For what it's worth I was driving between sites in Swindon when the wife texted me then called me. When I got to the next site just about everyone was watching the TV.

We visited Ground Zero and the museum/exhibition there 3 years ago and I have to say it was quite emotional even though I had no connection with either the building or the tragic events 20 years ago.

[stevewalker]

I was working in an Engineering Design office, over a bank in Disley. We heard about the first plane and assumed a light aircraft, then heard rumours that it was a commercial aircraft. While we were discussing this, we heard about the second plane. At that point it was clearly an attack and we went to find a TV.

Meanwhile my girlfriend (now wife) was visiting patients in their own homes and when I picked her up at the end of the day, she hadn't heard anything about it!

[Ossian]

I put on the car radio and the only thing I could think of was a nuclear attack.   My wife was working in the City of London and I was sure I would never see her again.

Thoughts and prayers to all.

[railsquid]

I was working in a dotcom-boom-ish internet company in Berlin, and as all the news sites were being pounded we had little idea about what was happening beyond an aeroplane had crashed into a tower in New York and some garbled report from the Times of India (which was about the only site still responding) about one or more towers collapsing.

I didn't find any more until I went on a break and wandered into the nearb railway station (Bhf Zoo for anyone taking notes) where there was a TV running showing news coverage.

[joe cassidy]

That morning I went to the the Sofitel Bercy hotel in Paris to pick up a customer for a factory visit.

I had to wait a long time for him to come down from his room.

This hotel is used a lot by airline crews for layovers in Paris.

I saw several crews arrive from different airlines and I couldn't understand why they all looked so sad until my wife phoned me and told me what had happened in the US.

[guest311]

I am still absolutely amazed by the courage and sheer devotion to duty of the fire crews, still climbing up the towers to rescue people and attempt to fight the fires even as they collapsed.

from what I have seen and read, entire companies and bns just ceased to exist.

there are just no words to describe such devotion to duty and others that I can think of.

I doubt I could aspire to such selfless bravery.