I remember it like it was yesterday, and I can still smell the massive burning piles of rubble in my mind. It hovered over lower manhattan for ages. I still work right across the street and often walk over to the memorial fountains and touch the names of those I once knew. A perspective check when you're having a shitty day.
Thank you for this thread. The world suddenly became unsafe for me on that day.
I was working at the World Financial Center (just across the West Side Highway) at the time, and happened to have that day off. I was living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn across the river and could see and smell it from the dock down the street. I have PTSD and will never be able to go back to NYC, not even for a visit.
I'll Never forget! I was an airline pilot then. Got in about midnight the night before so wasn't in the air that morning. A lot of my friends were. Sad, sad day.