New York City - September 18, 2001
www.WillhiteWeb.com: Travel
In New Jersey ready to take the ferry over to Manhattan
Saying thank you to the firemen
View of Manhattan on the ferry ride over from New Jersey
At the Philadelphia airport 2 weeks after Sept. 11th. That is me, third from the back. This line goes all the way beneath the sky bridge, up the stairs, over the sky bridge (look and you�ll see the line inside), then it goes all the way to the security checkpoint. I think the birds overhead are vultures waiting for someone to pass out.
I basically thought he was nuts and we proceeded up to our room. I turned on the TV to see both Twin Towers on fire and then collapsing. I couldn't believe my eyes, what was happening? Why would both buildings be burning? Everything was in Spanish so I couldn't get any help from the news except what I could see. In the video, I saw the airplane and quickly realized this was no accident. Images of the Pentagon on fire and more photos of the White House and US Capitol Building kept coming on the screen. We couldn't take it any longer; we left the hotel looking for somewhere to pick up BBC. Down the street was a five star hotel with a lobby showing what was happening. Once the guests in the lobby saw we were Americans looking to gather information they quickly changed the channel to the BBC. As we watched, we began to get a clearer picture as to what happened. We were upset but there was a bit of relief now knowing the timeline and that thousands had escaped the buildings. We had no clue if the buildings fell only minutes after being hit.
The next several days were spent in France where we probably saw the French at their kindest toward Americans since the end of WWII. Our flight back to the U.S on September 14 was canceled and we couldn't get back until the 17th. Air travel was a nightmare during this time as you might imagine, huge lines and confusion everywhere. We arrived in Philadelphia with another full week to travel. While talking with the rental car agent, we asked him where we should go sightseeing. He said, "Why not go down to Atlantic City to see the Miss American Pageant tonight? My wife had done a few small pageants so off we went. Getting tickets wasn't a problem, because of the recent events; the place was only half full. The following day we drove north to New York. Because lower Manhattan was completely closed, we took the ferry over from Jersey City. It was a grim sight, taking the boat into a beautiful city still smoking from the fires 8 days after the event. We had just traveled through 24 European countries over 3 months visiting some of the most beautiful cities ever built. New York was our beautiful city and it was awful to see it this way. The streets and buildings around the city were still covered in ash. Walking on Wall Street was like being in a science fiction movie, nobody was in sight! The military was stationed in Battery Park with machine guns in hand. The sights we had been planning to visit for over a year during all our planning were all closed. We left that evening by ferry knowing we would one day return to see the city recovered and bustling with energy again.
We had been in Europe for nearly three months when it happened. In Granada Spain, we were checking into a hotel with our U.S passports when the desk guy started telling us what had happened back in the U.S. All I could understand was him saying America was under attack and there were 10,000 people dead.
