Where, what, how were you when you first heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center that took place on 9 - 11? - Brent - Loving Life

I was rudely awoken by my wife and the first thing I saw was the second plane embed itself in the side of that building. I was unemployed then as well an spent the next 2 weeks glued to the TV. It was not a fun time for me or America. - Brent - Loving Life

I was at the bank, changing Greek currency. I was about to fly to Greece in a few hours. When i first saw the news i thought it was an item about a new movie. - Nik

Did you still want to fly after seeing that? - Brent - Loving Life

I had just woken up, and was watching news, though I initially thought I had turned on a movie. I still remember that eerie feeling once I figured it out... - Bette Cooper

I was just getting up and heard it on the news. They were mentioning that it seemed like a small plane and that it was likely pilot error. I had just recently read Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor (I think that's the one) where Japanses terrorists fly a plane into the Capitol and so I immediately though terrorism. By the time I got to a TV it was everywhere. My daughter was 3 at the time and I remember trying to keep her from seeing it on the TV that day (a near impossibility). - Kenton

I was driving to a work-related conference in Plano, TX when I heard it on NPR. When I went inside the hotel, it was all over CNN. They delayed the start of the conference for over an hour because of it. - ha3rvey (Ho)^3

I was home sick, got up late and reading e-mail from friend in Capitol that said: "We're all safe here in DC" and I wondered WTF Safe!!?? by the time I had CNN truned on 2nd plane had hit... Visited site a year ago and its all construction cranes but the St Pauls church yard was a great space to meditate - WarLord

Kenton, I had just read "Debt of Honor", too. I thought I was going to be sick. - ha3rvey (Ho)^3

@Brent, i was not afraid to fly, the terrorist could not bring down every plane, and they were probably not interested in a flight from Amsterdam to Greece. What amazed me most, was the kind of surreal atmosphere at the airport, like nothing had happened a few hours earlier. The news was all about heavy security measurements but i did not notice any of that. - Nik

I'm getting goosebumps just reading this stuff ... - Brent - Loving Life

I thought at first I was watching a movie preview and My wife didn't know what to think, So bizarre ... - Brent - Loving Life

I was in DC, watching CNN before the office opened. The coverage cut over and we watched as the 2nd plane hit; someone pulled the fire alarm in the building after the plane hit the Pentagon, and we evacuated just in time to hear the emergency barriers and missile banks open up. In parts of the city, you could actually smell the Pentagon burning. - Jennifer Dittrich

I was living in West LA and my roommate woke me up after the first plane hit. - Rodfather

I was in college in San Francisco, up and getting ready for my day. It was one of those days where I had class from 10:00am to about 3:00pm and then I had work from 3:30pm to 8:00pm so I was up and preparing for a long day. The phone rang and it was my mom in So Cal asking me what i was doing and to turn on the TV. I remember getting mad because I was busy and didn't have a cordless phone so I'd have to drop everything to do what she was asking. Then she started sobbing and through her tears said "The Twin Towers have been hit...by a plane." It was then I turned on the TV and stared. Shock...that's all I remembered. Shock. Then fear. Being in San Francisco, a big population in a tight space we feared if another attack would happen, that would be the place. So we fled. We headed south to Half Moon Bay where my friend's family lived. - Nurse Katie

I was walking into the directors office of the company I worked for. The TV was to the side of a corridoor and as I walked in I saw the assistant staring at where the TV is with her jaw open. I spun round to see what was gobsmacking her as the second plane slammed into the towers. My response "woah, what movie is this?" her whimper "BBC News". I was due to go to Florida on the 13th. I never got that holiday. - alphaxion

I had good friend, she was on plane Paris to Amsterdam (then MN) mid air when she heard. Standed in Amsrerdam for a week. Literally did not know WHEN she would ever see US - WarLord

I was watching Katie Couric on the "Today" show (NBC). First reports were of a small plane, then it got worse. I was unemployed at the time, so I remember stepping outside later that day and thinking how eerie it was not to have planes overhead (we lived directly under the primary flightpath for the San Jose, CA, airport). Later that evening we attended a prayer service at our church. - Mistletoe Glen

I didn't have to work that day, so I was sitting down to my computer to read the news. My neighbor was walking by when she got a call from her boss not to come in. She worked at the Pacific Stock Exchange, and he told her the news right as I was reading it. I didn't believe what I was seeing at first, so turned on the TV. She came in to tell me about it and we watched as the second plane hit. - Admiral Anika

I was living in LA at the time. I was asleep (had gone to bed at 4am) and my best friend, w/ whom I was living, knocked on my door v. early, which in itself sort of put me into "uh oh" mode. She was on the phone w/ my partner (then in NC), who'd called to say—and this was the sentence she said: "David says to turn the TV on. A jet just hit the World Trade Center." And in my grogginess, it's 6 am, I've slept for 2 hrs, I think to myself, "She didn't mean to say 'jet'; she must mean bi-plane," but David wouldn't call for no reason, so I leap out of bed, we turn the TV on, and we see the 2nd plane hit the tower. I sat in front of the TV for the next 19 hrs. - Ayşe E.

Funny about the movie. Adrian was asleep and I went in to tell him. He mumbled something to me and went back to sleep. When he got up, we were still watching TV. Aaron Brown was on and they showed the clips of the planes hitting. My husband asked me what movie it was. I said, "This is the news. This in NYC, man." - Admiral Anika

i was at work. every website was clocking/down and a bunch of us ended up going down to the window of a bar and watching on a tv they had set up in the window. eventually they sent us home. - Bill Kinney

At the time I still owned my bookstore. It was my day off and I was reading. My oldest friend (since we were 12) IMed me and asked me if I had heard. I looked around online and saw the details. How was I...well, I had a very uncommon reaction. I wasn't surprised at all, really. I had been expecting something like that for some time. Ever had really crazy neighbors or housemates, and get involved in their disputes while they both escalate the crazy? Long story short, one of them eventually sets your house on fire. I saw it coming, it's just one of those things you hope you are wrong about, you know? - Neal Jansons

i was driving in to my office in downtown Ft. Worth, blissfully unaware until i saw all the MPs redirecting traffic to improvised checkpoints and the jet fighters out of Carswell JRB circling in the sky. then i turned on the car radio to hear everyone screaming and weeping and freaking out. so i parked and went up to 36 at City Center II and asked the VP "WTF ARE WE DOING HERE IN A SKYSCRAPER?!?" - Joe Silence

Sleeping after having worked a double, woke up to a phone call from my dad telling me to turn on the TV, and my first reaction was "A remake of towering inferno?" then I realized what was going on, wasn't surprised at all, but definitely didn't like what was happening. I then went out to get breakfast and some regular shopping that needed to be done for a while, since I knew lines wouldn't be long at most places right then. Did I take advantage of a situation? Yes, was it smart? Yes, cause the next couple weeks were hectic, people stockpiling gas, withdrawing their life savings, buying 500 gallons of water etc.. I spent the next several days with the TV on mute listening to shortwave and ham freqs to understand how the world was reacting. - Tsali, The Native of FF

I was in my first class of the day, and they randomly called us all back to our homerooms before our teachers broke the news to us (at that point it was still developing and we got updates throughout the day, but I didn't see any footage until I got home). I remember panicking every time I heard a plane go over because I knew flights from Logan were grounded — even though I knew they were just the fighter jets over Boston it still freaked me out, heh. - Penguin It's Cold Outside

I was in a church staff meeting at a church near Cleveland, OH. When we first heard that "a plane crashed into one of the trade center towers" we continued with our meeting thinking it was a small private plane and wondering why they would have told us about that. A few minutes later someone came in and tearfully told us that the first tower fell. We prayed and then adjourned our meeting. I ran home just in time to see the second tower fall. - Jim Addz No Value

wow ... - Brent - Loving Life

Very interesting/moving to read these accounts. Mine could go on and on. The day is so vivid. - Ayşe E.

Unfortunately, I was on the phone with one of my Bond servicers at the Bank of New York on Barclay Street across from the Towers. The conversation got broken up by a huge "OMG". Then folks started to freak and my line was dropped. By that time it was on our monitors at the brokerage house and then they dismissed us in case it was going to be attacks across the nation. I went to my ex's home and we watched the TV, prayed, cried, and tried to do checks on our friends in the city. - Mathew A. Koeneker

Ayse E, I have a very vivid memory of that day as well. - Brent - Loving Life

I was at work, sitting at my desk, when the first plane hit. A coworker who was looking at news online said, "Some jackass just crashed his plane into the World Trade Center!" I walked over and we looked at the story and the pictures, and noticed the clear blue sky. "I'm not sure that was an accident," I said. "The sky is perfectly clear." Then the second plane hit. The coworker went into the conference room to try to get the television in there turned on and tuned. I went back to my desk, tried to get to more news online, and turned on my radio to listen. [Eventually, the employer turned off our internet access, because the pipelines were just too jammed.] I called my then-husband, who had just gotten up, and told him he had to turn on the news. He was shocked. I just remember spending the entire day numb, and wondering where would be next. - Ladybug Heather

Back then, i was living in Coimbra, Portugal. I was just finishing lunch (it was almost 14h here, and was listening to the radio when they broke the news about the first plane. Everyone thought it was an accident with an ANG plane. I turned the TV on, and i remember thinking it was a beautiful day there, lots of visibility, how did that happen? While the tv anchor was trying to rechapter all the info he had, the second plane came. And everything became clear, and i froze as i understood what was happening. I ran to a firend's house who had cable and saw everything live on CNN, Sky, BBC...though across the Pond i felt like if the attack was against me too, we all own a bit of NY, even if we never went there. My journalism training kicked in and i tried to get as much info as possible, in the Internet 1.0 days was mainly through the TV. That kept the horror away for a while, but i remember how painful it was, as i watched people falling from the towers, and how silent i got when i saw them crumble. - Alexandre Gamela from twhirl

I was in a history class, some other teacher came in and said "a plane just crashed into the trans world center", we were all WTF. Then my instructor said, that there were no Spanish Conquistadors on the flight, and if it was important we would see news of it later. Well we finished the lesson early, so we turned on the news just to see the second plane hit. Yeah turns out it was kinda important. - Ryan

At work. We had a TV in the waiting room and we all ran there to see the news. I work in a state office building/courthouse. All government buildings were ordered to close. A friend drove me home; my car was in the shop that day. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

I was in a staff meeting at the jail. Someone came in and handed a note to the director. After the meeting, she asked someone to turn on the TV. Having no idea how big the news was going to be, I left to go to the restroom and found out when I returned to the conference room. After watching at the jail for a while, I drove to the library where I was scheduled to work and was sent home at 1 after all government buildings were closed. My two normal ways home are through Ft Meade or past NSA. It took a while to make the trip. My wife was in DC that day. She finally made it home around 5 after getting a ride with coworkers out of the city. - Alan Simpson

I was at marching band practice. My hint that something was wrong was that the sky was absolutely clear and quiet. It was eerie. No planes or helicopters or anything. Came inside with a weird feeling. Went to my German class and watched TV for pretty much the rest of the day. - Jordan Hofker

I had meningitis and was resting at home; earlier that morning I had had a nightmare in blue about the inside of a building collapsing, but was able to go back to sleep and was resting when my mom called and told me that I should turn on the TV because a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My father was in charge of some of the World Financial Center projects and as such I had spent a lot of time playing at the World Trade Center while he worked weekends in Manhattan in 1986/1987 - RAPatton

This story -- yes, from 2006 -- is a chilling account. It is from NORAD, with the audio and transcripts of what was happening at the command bunker that morning. Every time I read it, I find myself crying. http://www.vanityfair.com/politic... - Ladybug Heather

I was at work and the news started reporting on the first plane hit. I called my brother-- who was living in NYC at the time-- and talked with him for a while. I was on the phone with him when the first tower fell. I could hear the rumbling over his phone. Since I lived in NYC for several years, the whole thing hit me pretty hard. It still makes me tear up to think of it. - Jason Huebel

I was living in SF. Set my alarm for 6 am because my parents were flying in from Florida that day and I needed to straighten up a bit. The clock radio came on with a nebulous report from NPR about a plane crash in NY. I turned on the TV and watched, even the second plane hitting the second tower when no one in the broadcast booth seemed to recognize what was happening. I saw the report from the Pentagon and I thought, "we're at war." I called my parents who were on their way to the airport and told them to turn around and go home. There was no way they were flying on that day. As the details came in and one of the planes was said to have taken off from Newark, I started to get worried. My brother was supposed to be flying out on a business trip from there at about that time. Tried calling my sister-in-law but couldn't get through. I finally reached her via email. My brother was OK. Then I started thinking about everyone else. - Kevin Pedraja

At work, the day was finishing. Once back home I logged in on my PC and went straight to online version of SF Chronicle. That's where I saw a picture of one of the 2 towers burning. I thought it was odd but could hardly find any more details as the net was saturated with people trying like me to access news websites. - lelapin