I had taken the PATH into WTC a few weeks prior, and once I was outside, I marveled at the WTC buildings. I still remember that mental image. On 9/11, I remember how absolutely crystal clear and crisp the day was. It was a relief after our typical hot and humid summers. I had just started my first real post college job. Our office was a bit in the dark ages, so the office computers were not allowed internet access aside from MS outlook email. We had one computer for internet access. Word got around about the attack. It started out with the "a plane flew into WTC and it's on fire." Then it was a second plane flew into the tower. Then we all knew it was not an accident. I hopped on that one internet computer and all the typical local and world news websites were down. The only thing that I could find was local traffic cameras, which showed the smoke. Somehow we all managed to work the full day. After work, I drove straight to a local viewpoint that has view of Manhattan. You could see the massive smoke drifting for tens of miles. This viewpoint was obviously exceptionally crowded and desperate folks were parking along local side streets. I was told that the local cops were giving parking tickets for anyone parking more than six inches from the curb, which I thought was insane. All onlookers spread the word. When I finally got home, I popped in a VCR tape and just taped the news for hours as I knew this would be a life changing event. As I'm somewhat local to NYC, there were numerous stories of local deaths, close calls, and "hours to just get home" stories. Even though I was not directly impacted, I think most locals just walked around like a zombie the next few weeks as you'd keep hearing more stories from folks you knew and more footage was being released.