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[Nobody_Important]

I remember calling my friends who were also in HS, and everyone got sent home early that day as a precaution.

My school didn't send us home early, but I remember some of my friends were picked up early by their parents.


Its wild looking back just how crazy and unsure people were that day. Nobody knew what was happening or if it was going to keep happening.

 

[hollams]

I was in Baltimore at a funeral when it happened and we didn't know anything until after the funeral.
It was mind-blowing watching all the coverage and trying to figure out what was going on. We flew into the airport that one of the planes took off from the day before.

Of course our flight home was cancelled so one of our relatives from Texas that was there for the funeral just took his rental car and drove nonstop and dropped us off in Arkansas on his way home. We heard all kinds of reports that gas was $10/gallon or more it was all so crazy.

 

[Noboru Wataya]

I had to turn it off after seeing the jumpers and the second plane hit. Brought me to tears, cant watch.

 

[Joyful]

I remember

Being in Alaska, I woke up after the first plane hit and happened to turn on the tv.

Watching the second plane hit live was pretty crazy

School that day was weird, the anxiety of possibly going to war was palpable.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

The day the world changed forever.

 

[Rat Rage]

Here is an observation: Imagine other bad events in this world would ge this much exposure in the media. 9/11 was almost a bit surreal, because it was covered by so many cameras, different camera angles, and the whole incident had a cinematic flair to it (planes hitting sky scrapers is not something you see everday). Then the buildings collapsed as well, which was equally well covered and looked spectacular as well. Lot's of people died, and the whole world saw it live (eventhough the actual horror remained largely covered, because all the events happend pretty quickly).

The whole world was shocked. TV stations around the world even stopped their broadcasts and started playing some sad music for days ("Only time" from Enya).

3000 people or so died that day.

At that time it struck me how much compassion is/can be influenced by the media and how many bad things humans hear, but don't get to see in a similar edited way, like all the thousands or even millions of people who died horrible deaths in african civil wars elsewere around the world, or all the people who died of poverty, which also nobody really gave a shit about. 9/11 was an intersting day to contemplate about human nature.

This reminds me of...

By the way, did you know that 6500 workers died during the contrustion of the soccer stadiums of the FIFA Worldcup 2022 in Qatar? Isn't that crazy? The Media has been reporting about it, but I bet nothing will happen and it's gonna take place as planned. So when the worldcup starts and the all these soccer teams start playing in all these stadiums, they will literally play on the corpses of all these poor workers who got exploited to death.

This situation would be comparable to holding a sports event on the grounds of 9/11, which is kind of fucked up, isn't it?

 

[Drew1440]

I was rewatching the Howard Stern 9/11 broadcast the other day, you can tell the shift in attitude when the second plane hit. At first they though it was a fire that had broken out, then it became apparent that plane had hit the building, with all sort of speculation if it was an accident or an attack.
Then the second plane hit and everyone on the show (Robin) lost their minds over what was happening.
The callers were the best part, hearing peoples reactions in the heat of the moment, I wish I could link it but the clip was taken down sadly.

 

[Revolutionary]

I was a sophomore at a high school along the East River that had a clear view of the towers. After the towers fell, the principal decided to call our parents to pick us up. On the way home, the smoke had wafted over the river and made for a very eerie drive home.

 

[GnomeChimpsky]

It's a bit creepy seeing that relaxed morning TV stuff knowing that shit is about to go down and things will never quite be the same again.

 

[6502]

Awful day. I did not see it live, I found out by Newgrounds and other non news websites all covering it. People guessing who it was (Russians?).

As an observer, I have to say America was very restrained in response and went about getting concensus for the war in a reasonable way.

Where it all went wrong after that is up for debate. We have seen the worst of America since (at home and abroad), but that (and possibly the polarisation of the population since) is perhaps understandable if not unavoidable.

I wish I had something more positive to say about going forward, but at least 20 years on people can start to look back and correct some of the consequences (big brother etc).

 

[rofif]

I vividly recall watching this on TV. I remember feeling extremely confused, especially early on.

Yeah I was only 12 but this was pretty surreal on the news

 

[rofif]

A whole lot of work went into this. Basically every bit of relevant video from that day, edited together, and played in real time.

It's very disturbing from how real it seems. I honestly couldn't watch it more than 10 minutes. It really takes you back for those of you that saw this live on TV.

I've never seen the first plane! Had no idea the footage of complete first crash existed. Holy fuck.
This is still mind blowing how successful the terrorists were. Not only steal a huge plane... BUT FUCKING 4 OF THEM and crash one of them into freaking pentagon. CMON

 

[ClanOfNone]

I has to close the bar that night, it was a ghost town. My manager and I sat at the bar, watched the news coverage, and got really drunk.

 

[Nobody_Important]

I've never seen the first plane! Had no idea the footage of complete first crash existed. Holy fuck.
This is still mind blowing how successful the terrorists were. Not only steal a huge plane... BUT FUCKING 4 OF THEM and crash one of them into freaking pentagon. CMON

Yeah the footage of the first plane blew me away the first time I saw it. I've always wondered if the firemen in the video survived the day.

 

[Soodanim]

The interesting response I always see is “An attack on American soil”. It’s as if you thought America was untouchable, like things like that could only happen elsewhere, and it was all the more shocking for it.

Definitely did change the world forever though.

 

[E-Cat]

I was in a chat room, might've been IRC, on the computer at the local library (didn't have Internet at home back then). I remember someone posted a picture of the first tower in smoke and flames, I just thought it was some idiot who had flown a small plane into the building. It wasn't until later that night when I went home that I realized it was a terrorist attack. Spent the rest of the night glued to the TV.

 

[StormCell]

The interesting response I always see is “An attack on American soil”. It’s as if you thought America was untouchable, like things like that could only happen elsewhere, and it was all the more shocking for it.

Definitely did change the world forever though.

I have a couple of thoughts on this. The first is that since World War II and really since the fall of the Soviet Union there hadn't been another nation prepared to or equipped to maintain an assault on American soil. You could pick any modern nation, create a scenario where they attack the US mainland, and that war would be on their own soil by the end of the week.

Second thought is that there had been previous terror attacks. You can hear in the video the news reporters mentioning several times that terrorists had attempted to bomb the towers back in 1993. There have been terrorist attacks in the past, however nothing of this scale. Not since Pearl Harbor had there been such destruction and loss of life. You can hear the reporters treating 9/11 like a full on declaration of war. The only issue is that there was no particular nation behind the attack. 9/11 was an attack carried out by an ideology -- it would be like Antifa deciding to destroy the white house even though there is officially no entity known as Antifa. Still, 3000 people were killed, and so of course we followed up on that by holding entire other nations accountable for the actions of people residing within their borders.

 

[EverydayBeast]

9/11 may be the best example of terrorizing a nation as successful as USA. RIP.

 

[StormCell]

I like to think that in reality nothing actually changed after 9/11. There were changes. There were changes in policy. There were changes in surveillance. We declared two wars. Flying became an extreme pain in the ass. But outside of society nothing much really changed. Really, if you never really left the farm except to go to the store then nothing much really changed in the aftermath of 9/11.

Except I can see that a lot actually did change. The American people changed in the aftermath of 9/11. We had our rallying moment where we united, and then like four years later it became a total shit show and cat fight over whether to be at war or not. And it has only gotten more polarized and worse since then.

I can say with perfect clarity that since 2000, I no longer recognize half of this country. That is what I think about on the anniversaries of 9/11.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Second thought is that there had been previous terror attacks. You can hear in the video the news reporters mentioning several times that terrorists had attempted to bomb the towers back in 1993. There have been terrorist attacks in the past, however nothing of this scale. Not since Pearl Harbor had there been such destruction and loss of life. You can hear the reporters treating 9/11 like a full on declaration of war.

Before this, plane hijackings were the work of bandits, guerrillas or defectors who would redirect the plane and maybe stab a guy or two in the process. That must be one of the reasons why the passengers did not react in the first three planes. Flight 93 passengers were able to make phone calls and learned of the attacks so they tried to fight the hijackers.

 

[Durien]

Reading these I am beginning to think I am the oldest person here. 2 other people I worked with and I lived in the same apt complex. One of them knocked on my door and said, I think we're under attack. Turned on CNN and watched the news. I was amazed when the towers fell straight down and not just topple over. We went to work (tech company) and everyone was watching. Pretty weird day and week for that matter as they suspected more attacks might happen.

 

[Durien]

Flying became an extreme pain in the ass

No kidding. I remember before 9/11 my wife and I would go to Japan and come back with a carry on full of bottles of sake. Also, we were working on her green card at that time....yeah that slid out quite a while...

 

[newtypepilot]

I am on the west coast so I was still asleep when it happened. I didn't find out about it until I went to school. The teacher brought out the tv and we spend the morning watching news broadcasts. It was a surreal moment.

 

[TheGrat1]

6th Grade Latin Class. Everything was going normally until the computer lab teacher opened the door and told our teacher "it was all over the news." I initially misheard him and thought he said "they're bombing the World School Center." My immediate first thought was: "Sweet, we get to get out of school."
Everyone started murmuring excitedly and our teacher told us to calm down but that she would turn the tv on (every classroom had a tv mounted high in a corner, only had a few channels but we watched Channel One news every day before the morning announcements, so this was nothing new) because "...I want to know what is going on with my country." I believe we had the CBS broadcast. I remember being somewhat annoyed at the broadcasters with how slow on the uptake they were (Gumble was terrible). I still get chills when I see that shot of the second plane hitting from the North.
I was surprised the buildings, especially the South Tower, did not collapse immediately on impact but I did expect it to happen eventually. When they started reporting on the Pentagon strike I wondered when this would end and just how far this would spread and I started to fear for my mother because she worked in one of the tallest buildings downtown. Little did I know that Flight 93 was going to fly within 20 miles of us that day (I am in Pittsburgh) and within a few miles of her. Virtually no one talked while the broadcast was on and when they said people were pulling their children out of school I anticipated it would happen to me. We got out of school early and I was relieved to see my mom laying in bed watching the news.

It was more surreal than anything. Even as incredible as the events of that day were I was honestly not that scared outside of concern for my mother. The anthrax attacks that came later were significantly more terrifying to me as they seemed so random.

 

[NinjaMouse]

I was a senior in college and remember sleeping in that morning (skipping class). My roommate called me frantically telling me to get to a TV. I was glued to it, all the while thinking it was basically the end of the world. I expected my door to get kicked in and get taken prisoner or something, because it just felt like a declaration of war. I'd never seen or experienced anything like that. Also my now-wife's cell phone was based out of NYC since she grew up there and she was freaking out because she couldn't call home to check on family who worked in Manhattan since they shut the network down. Luckily everyone was fine, but it was definitely a period of time I'll never forget. The most vulnerable I've felt from a national security perspective.

 

[Neolombax]

I remember waking up to this on the news, and saw the plane crash into the tower. I remember telling myself this must be a movie, right? But why is it on the news?

 

[squallheart]

I am on the west coast so I was still asleep when it happened. I didn't find out about it until I went to school. The teacher brought out the tv and we spend the morning watching news broadcasts. It was a surreal moment.

West coast here As well woke up get ready for school senior in high school. It was an odd day, my mom was worried we'd go to war.

 

[Cutty Flam]

RIP to all the victims and condolences to their families

Was in the third grade and had just gotten up for school and entered the living room to see my mother about two feet from the television watching in shock the news and I remember the tv screen was showing massive amounts of gray smoke and the Twin Towers. She didn't even greet me or notice me I think for what felt like three to five minutes as I tried to figure what was happening just standing there in the background. But eventually she explained. I'll never forget the mood of that living room, as well as my classroom and the moments of silence we had. I think all that week if not the entire month, we had moments of silence for the victims of 9/11

One of my classmates who I went to school with from 6th grade through 12th grade all the way to graduation, and I didn't even know until one day in the 10th grade, but she lost her aunt on 9/11. She was a passenger on one of the planes. Can't even imagine how crushing and horrifying their loss is

Wasn't just Americans that were killed either. Many people from other countries died because of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Over 8,900 people were injured on that day. One of the most abominable days in history

Casualties by country

Casualties by Country — Memorial Mapping: Transnational 9/11 Memorials

www.memorialmapping.com

 

[DragoonKain]

Sam Harris on 9/11:



This is not the full version, you'll need to subscribe to his pod to hear it in full.

 

[Polelock]

I vividly recall watching this on TV. I remember feeling extremely confused, especially early on.

Same. I was working for a cleaning agency at the time. I was a young kid. That night we were had to clean one of the largest banks in our area. I was freaking scared. Kept looking up waiting for a plane. I woke up that morning to my stepmom screaming. Was so surreal.

 

[IDKFA]

That was a hard watch.

What upsets me about watching this is the knowledge that 20 years later, the war in Afghanistan was wasted and Al-Qaeda still exist.

I still don't believe everyone who died that day hasn't received real justice, but that's a topic for another thread and possibly not even for this site due to its political nature.

 

[Deleted member 1159]

Sam Harris on 9/11:



This is not the full version, you'll need to subscribe to his pod to hear it in full.

Sam on point per usual

 

[Yamisan]

I still remember turning on the tv that day to get dressed for my college English class only to see the 2nd plane hit within seconds. I had no idea what was going on, we ended up just watching the live news in English class in silence for 2 hours.

 

[Irobot82]

I haven't mustered up the courage to watch this yet. I may do it tomorrow being the day and all. It's just so hard to watch.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I'm also on the West Coast. I don't watch the news or anything when I wake up, I get in my car and drive to where I'm going. That morning, I was on the way to school. I was stuck in traffic like any other day in California and I turned the radio on to listen to some music and instead what I heard was a news report. Confused, I changed to another station. And then another. At the 4th station, I gave up and just listened and it dawned on me something big was happening. I made it the rest of the way to school and finally got to a TV and everyone was just staring at it. That was when I saw a flaming skyscraper for the first time that day.

It's been 20 years since then...

 

[Aggelos]

Oh wow, guys, the 20th anniversary of that abominable day is here. What a shocking day it was, even to watch it on TV. What was happening before our eyes was unprecedented and shocking-appalling beyond anything a human being could grasp.
Our hearts go out to all those who perished, their families and friends and to all those who were indelibly scarred by that day....

 

[KiNeMz]

I remember this like it was yesterday. Watching it live from Australia. I had previously spent 6 months living in the Washington DC Area a month prior. I had a sort of connection to the pentagon one. I had made many friends in the Alexandria and Arlington areas. It was so surreal.

 

[bender]

Beyond the shock of the day, the thing that sticks out most is how united the country felt the first few weeks or even months afterwards and how quickly we squandered that unity.

 

[DragoonKain]

I was watching some of the Netflix documentary, but I have trouble watching a lot of this stuff all over again. It's too unpleasant.

 

[haxan7]

I was watching some of the Netflix documentary, but I have trouble watching a lot of this stuff all over again. It's too unpleasant.

Definitely not a nighttime watch. I started watching 9/11 stuff last night and noped out pretty quickly. This morning I made it through the OP video in about an hour viewing time with the rest fast forwarded.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

That day was nuts as it affected I think all major cities too. When the event happened in the morning, downtown Toronto got shut down as there was fear terrorists would do something to Union Station. And obviously the airport got shut down.

I was doing grad school at the time and had a night class that evening. The class still went on that night!

 

[MaestroMike]

 

[LordCBH]

Oh my lord. Thank you for posting this. That’s the one day I could never forget, though I was decently young at the time. When that second one hit is when we all knew it wasn’t an accident.

 

[Nobody_Important]

That day was nuts as it affected I think all major cities too. When the event happened in the morning, downtown Toronto got shut down as there was fear terrorists would do something to Union Station. And obviously the airport got shut down.

I was doing grad school at the time and had a night class that evening. The class still went on that night!

Yeah it was everywhere. I have a great uncle in Chicago he told me the company he works for evacuated his whole floor and sent them home out of caution.


People thought it could be all of the major cities. Not just NYC.

 

[Spaceman292]

I think 9/11 made people more aware of terrorist attacks.

You think?

 

[Marvel]

Saw it live on sky news as a kid, just awful.

 

[InterMusketeer]

You think?

What do you think?

 

[Gp1]

Almost every one remembers what exactly they are doing at the time. Not only the americans.

I was a freshman at high school in Brazil. One of the usual "Karen" soccer moms came to the school exit desperate saying that the United States was at war or something. No one of the students gave a f. At the time there were several foreign student's at my school, including a American at my class that the father was a american attaché at the Brazilian Space Agency, but I really don't remember seeing him or his reactions after school that day.

When I got home, for some reason I checked the internet before turning on the tv and my brand new broadband internet was slow to a crawl (the good old napster/kazaa times). Then I turned on the TV and saw what really had happened.

Very sad and strange times indeed.

 

[Bartski]

20 years. I remember as if it was yesterday, driving with my dad across the country after delivering papers to start college, listening to it unfold on the car radio.

I feel really old today.

 

[ManaByte]

I was up late the night before publishing a review on IGN at midnight, so I had slept in that morning. When I got in my car, instead of hearing Howard Stern on the radio (this was long before Satellite), the first thing I hear is the local news being relayed from New York saying they were looking at the skyline where the World Trade Center once existed.

The next few months were surreal. One of my co-workers' wife at the time was a nurse in SF and she always told them they were almost always on alert for mass-casualty events because there were almost daily threats against both bridges. Driving across the Bay Bridge was stressful because of that and you always looked at box trucks with suspicion.