September 11th – The Unthinkable…

My high school sweetheart, Robin Kramer, and I were at the Riverdale Theatre in suburban Maryland outside of D.C., taking in Irwin Allen’s “The Towering Inferno” in the winter of 1974-75. I was so obsessed with this action/adventure movie that we went to see it 11 times! I became obsessed with skyscrapers of all kinds and had a curiosity about fire in a skyscraper – everyone’s worst nightmare. The enormity of tall buildings and what it took to design and build them was awe-inspiring to me.

Growing up in Washington, D.C., I had to see something taller than a 30-story high-rise, even though we had the Washington Monument, 26 miles away on the National Mall, at 555 feet in height. Ironically, I had never been to the top of the Washington Monument. It just didn’t seem like a skyscraper.

In the summer of 1975, Robin and I hit the road for New York to see some really big buildings. We were on our way to New Hampshire to visit my cousin and just happened to be passing through New York. I looked down the Hudson River to the south as we were crossing the George Washington Bridge, and there they were – twin towers of 110 stories each in glistening stainless steel.

On our way back through New York, I decided to exit I-95 at the Hudson just short of the GW and head down the West Side to the towers. They loomed big on the horizon and were larger than life. When Robin and I pulled up in front of Tower 1, it reached to the heavens a quarter of a mile into the sky like I had never seen. I wanted so badly to know what it felt like to be on top, close to the clouds.

The following summer, I’d find out.

The Observation Deck on top of Tower 2 opened to the public in the summer of 1976. The pamphlet said, “It’s Hard To Be Down When You’re Up – The Observation Deck at the World Trade Center…” Robin and I and a friend of hers flew to New York and beat a path to the towers from Midtown. We boarded the elevator, which was larger than any room in my home, and rode this high-speed vertical transporter to 107 at a 23 mph clip in one minute. It was so fast it made your ears pop.

Escalators took you to the rooftop observation deck, which was startling because Tower 1 seemed so far away on the ground and was very imposing when you were on top of Tower 2. On 107, you could look straight down in any direction. On top, you could see for miles. They told us that on a clear winter day, you could see the Poconos 80 miles away in Pennsylvania. I still wonder if that was true. Nonetheless, it was the first time I’d ever stood on top of a building one quarter of a mile in the sky. I recall seeing a Boeing 727 climbing out of JFK so close you felt like you could touch it.

What made the World Trade Center distinctive was its “twin tower” status. Appropriately spaced and positioned diagonally, they could be seen for miles. When we were heading north on the New Jersey Turnpike, you could see them way down to the south of Newark. With the GW Bridge dead ahead, you just couldn’t take your eyes off of them. They were majestic in scope and dominated the skyline. Although New Yorkers despised them, they gradually grew to love them, especially in the wake of the 1993 bombing, when New Yorkers almost lost them.

Years before September 11th, I was half-heartedly listening to a newscast while making a sandwich when it was said terrorists were planning to fly jetliners into the World Trade Center. My heart skipped several beats at the idea. I had to believe that was not possible. We were the United States, and no one would dare.

I was naive…

There’s always an enemy out there with a little more determination who could pull it off. Nineteen very committed hijackers did – much to the shock of the world in a Trojan horse moment with the power of four commercial jetliners. It was a quiet Tuesday morning when the phone rang. I was instructed to turn on the TV. We turned on the TV to a billowing Tower 1 in flames. At first, it was thought to be an accident. When a United Airlines 767 slammed into Tower 2, it was then a proven terrorist act – something I never would have believed possible.

When American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, left Boston’s Logan Airport headed for Los Angeles and vanished from the radar and headed off course for New York, the authorities sprang into action. At first, there was a lot of fumbling and confusion. The various agencies involved thought it was a drill and didn’t take it seriously. Amid the confusion, the American 767, at the hands of hijackers, was making its way south to New York. In minutes, it roared over the buildings of New York at over 400 mph and slammed into Tower 1.

Our world changed forever in seconds.

Minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 came around from over the Jersey shore and crashed into Tower 2, stunning New Yorkers who looked skyward in utter shock. Within minutes, American Airlines Flight 77, after taking off from Dulles Airport, roared across Northern Virginia to the Pentagon, clipping light poles and startling employees in the parking lot, killing 168 people at the Department of Defense. United Airlines Flight 93, with gutsy, determined and informed passengers on board, erupted into chaos – with three passengers storming the cockpit and halting the 757’s planned journey to Washington, saving the US Capitol from total destruction and huge losses of life. These courageous human beings saved Washington that day.

We’ve never been the same despite the post 9/11 unity at the time.

When we were growing up in the 1960s, could you have ever imagined September 11, 2001? We grew up in fear of a nuclear attack with “duck and cover” in our classrooms, coupled with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Careful negotiations prevented what could have become a nuclear Armagedón in 1962.

With that knowledge, and the winning of World War II in two theatres with help from our allies, life seemed pretty secure for a time. What September 11th taught us was – anything can happen at any moment and did, teaching us to never take anything for granted. Not completely certain we learned anything.