I was working for Smith Barney on the West Side Drive about 10 blocks north of the towers. Living in Brooklyn, I usually took the express bus that left me off at the towers to either walk or take the E train to Canal St. On this day there was a crowd waiting for the bus so I decided to walk 5 blocks to the F train. At Jay St. transferred to the A to Canal. At Canal started my walk west to my building when I noticed a crowd of people at Varrick St. just standing and looking South. When I arrived at that corner, it was hard to figure out what I was seeing. It looked like a scene from a movie. Then someone in the crowd told me a plane hit the towers. The first thing I thought was it must have been an accident, maybe like the golfer Payne Stewart incident where everyone passed out with no one to fly the plane. Continued my walk to work and found another crowd of people outside my building which had a clear line of sight to the towers from West St. I stood around watching for a few more minutes with my colleagues then figured I'd better report for work and went inside to wait for the elevator. Just as the elevator doors opened a woman ran into the lobby screaming "another plane just hit the other tower!!!!" Back outside to see the black smoke rising out of the South Tower only this time it was rising from lower than the first strike. Now we all realized it was not an accident, it was an attack of some sort. A few minutes later we were all told to go home for the day. No trains or buses were running so most of us continued to watch as the air filled with sirens and smoke. From time to time, we could see little black dots falling off the buildings. No one needed to tell us, it had to be people jumping. Then the South Tower collapsed, followed soon after by the North. Nothing left to see, I started my long journey home. Walked over the Manhattan Bridge to a plaza where crowds of survivors, many caked in soot and dust were being triaged and volunteers were handing out water. Continued walking and walking and walking until I arrived at my house near the Parade Grounds, tired but happy to be with my family.
