On 9/11/01, I was 24 years old and walking to work in Manhattan when the first p
By Adamjbrown23 · September 12, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
On 9/11/01, I was 24 years old and walking to work in Manhattan when the first plane hit the Twin Towers. As I walked down 11th Street to my office, I could see about twenty people on the corner of 11th and University looking up and pointing, wondering, and waiting to learn more.
My office window at the time had a direct line of sight to the towers, and a new officemate had just started with our company, and I remembered she randomly had a pair of binoculars in her box of stuff on her desk. I raced upstairs, grabbed them, and watched everything unfold with a zoomed-in POV.
I saw the flames, I saw the second plane strike the second building, and I even saw people jumping. I was in my office when we heard of the other planes being hijacked outside of NYC, and they shut my building down and asked everyone to evacuate and head to Union Square. There I saw people coming off of buses covered in soot, and some even in blood. Later that night, when there was a curfew in the city, I saw military tanks driving straight down Park Avenue, and it was an unsettling feeling, to say the least.
Today marks 25 years since that day, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It is also the first time that more years have passed in my life than my age at the time, and I sense that with each passing year, people who were not born yet (or were babies) get more numb to the tragedy, and it feels more like a page from a history book than a real-life event.
It is important to share our stories so people truly NEVER FORGET, especially given some of the political shifts and momentum in our city and country right now. RIP to all who lost their lives that day: May their memory be a blessing.