I had been visiting friends in Tioga, Pennsylvania and had my train ticket booked back to Penn Station on the morning of September 11th. I was up early that morning as I had to take a bus to Buffalo, NY to catch my train. It was a glorious morning with beautiful blue skies. I was sad to be leaving my friends but I was looking forward to getting back to the Hamptons to my family.
My friend Stephanie, who was taking me to the bus depot called to the house to collect me around 9.15am in a terrible panic. She was crying telling us to turn the t.v. on. To our absolute disbelief we saw that a commercial aeroplane had hit the Trade Centre and there was talk of the Pentagon being hit too. As we watched events unfold in real time on American television it was becoming very apparent that the U.S. was under attack from terrorists! During this time I had to make a decision regarding my travel plans back down to Manhattan. Everything was so uncertain; nobody knew for sure what was going on. I decided that I would stay where I was for now and maybe make my way back to the city the following day.
Within an hour however, everything changed! The South and North towers of the World Trade Centre collapsed with thousands of people feared trapped, injured and dead. The Pentagon had been hit and another hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. As I watched all this devastation unfold on the various news channels, the magnitude of the day was beginning to sink in. My thoughts went straight to my aunt Anne and uncle Bob in the Hamptons who were aware that I was making my way to Manhattan that morning. Further afield I realised that these events were going out live all around the world and I began to think of how worried my family in Ireland would be as well as they would have been aware of my itinerary too. I decided to start making a few phone calls to reassure people that I was safe. I was unable to do so though as phone lines were down all over the city. I couldn’t get through to the Hamptons or to my friend Heather in the Bronx and I was also unable to get an international line to call home. There was no internet access either so I couldn’t even email. There was nothing I could do except wait it out and see what happened. Eventually I received a call from my aunt Anne in New Jersey a day or 2 later who had been in contact with my aunt Anne in the Hamptons and from there we established a triangle of communication that helped relay information. I was told all routes in and out of Manhattan were closed and would be for days so I was advised to stay put in Pennsylvania until everything calmed down.
I was stranded in Pennsylvania for a few days but made my way back down to the City once all the bridges etc were re-opened. What I arrived into though was not the city I had left almost 2 weeks earlier! I remember walking out of Penn Station and being greeted by absolute chaos. There were cops everywhere, ambulances, and fire engines flying up and down the streets, sirens blaring. The crowds you expect inside and outside Penn Station was the same as usual however you couldn’t but sense the feeling of solidarity among New York’s citizens. You didn’t feel isolated or independent; you felt part of something, something that was bringing people together. The compassion, patience, generosity and goodwill that I experienced that day on the streets of New York was truly something to behold. I was ushered kindly by a police officer out of the noise and chaos and in to a cab to get down to Lexington Avenue to catch the last Hampton Jitney of the day.
The image that remains most vividly in my mind is looking out at the Manhattan skyline from the back window of the Hampton Jitney as we travelled over the Queensboro Bridge and seeing the gaping nothing of where the World Trade Centre had stood just a week earlier, with the fires and smoke still smouldering. Tears streamed down my face. I knew everything had changed for New York, America and the World.
