6 New Yorkers recount their experience of 9/11

9/11 is one of those days that had such a huge impact on the entirety of the world, that most people can remember what they were doing at the moment they found out. But what was it like for people in the city at the heart of the attacks? Here are six accounts from those directly witnessing the atrocities that took place that day...

1. 'I was in NYC. One thing that always sticks out in my mind: when I was walking home, I remember thinking that the city just felt so different. Then I realised the difference I noticed was that no-one was honking their horns constantly. The city was silent.'

- Reddit user western_red

2. 'Fleeing the World Trade Center, heading to work, hearing the second plane, letting people in the chat room know I was evacuating, calling my parents and actually getting through for about twenty seconds to let them know I was okay, walking up the island to catch the last train out of Manhattan (right about the time the first tower collapsed), sitting on a train in Hoboken where one person had a mobile phone signal and was relaying phone numbers to his wife to call to let people know their loved ones were alive (another guy I was sitting next to realised he left his car keys on his desk in the WTC), riding the train to Clifton, walking to the house, getting on AOL Instant Messenger and finally reaching someone who was able to contact my wife, who was stuck on the other end of the island because they closed the George Washington Bridge for most of the morning.

That was my morning.'

- Reddit user Cartoonlad

3. 'I grew up in a suburb on Long Island, and remember being on the 'bus-line' in the gymnasium of my elementary school when I heard about the plane hitting the World Trade Center. I don't recall what I actually made of this information, being only 9-10 years old, but I do remember when I was home from school.

My mum was crying as she hadn't heard from my dad yet. He was a Port Authority police officer and worked at LaGuardia airport at the time, however he had been sent into the city after either the first or second plane hit. He was on the ground when the first tower went down.

My family was very lucky, and my father survived. One of my classmates had a father who was FDNY, and unfortunately did not make it. I suppose that is one of the differences living close to NYC as opposed to most of the country, is that it seems like most people knew someone who died or a family who lost someone.'

- Reddit user The_Pauly

4. 'I remember quite vividly that morning. I was loading up the trucks of five small landscaping companies. As it turns out, all ten of the guys were firemen. As we were loading their trucks with bags of seed and chem, their beepers/phones lit up. At that moment I started to unload the bags from four trucks, as they were going to respond.

Two of the guys decided that they weren't responding as it was their day off, and they have customers they needed to take care of (their words, not mine). Suffice it to say that I still see them every now and then. The other eight never came home.

As the day wore on and they decided that the transit would be free, just to get people out of Manhattan, I watched the sullen, sunken faces of people getting off the bus completely covered in ash. The look of despair on each face is forever burned into the back of my brain.

I knew 35 people that lost their lives that day. 31 Firemen, 3 Cops, 1 Accountant.'

- Reddit user SithLordMohawk

I knew what it meant immediately, and the radio faded to nothing as I started pounding the steering wheel and screaming in anger. Being in a metro area like that and knowing something that only a few people know is a surreal experience. Four minutes later, the DJs of the show I was listening to started getting callers.

Diane: 'Oh, God.'
Elliot: 'What?'
Diane: 'Oh, God. We... we've just had a report of a fireball going up at the Pentagon.'
Elliot: 'There is Pentagon Annex near the WTC. That's probably what they meant...'
Flounder: 'The switchboard is lit up. People are saying it's at the Pentagon... not the annex in New York.'
Elliot: 'That can't be...'

Then they started putting callers through. A guy on the same highway as me also saw it and called in. Same for a woman from her balcony in Crystal City. A woman from her apartment in Roslyn. They all said the same thing: something just exploded at the Pentagon.

Minutes later, the first of many black unmarked Chevy suburbans drove past me at high speed on the shoulder of the interstate towards the direction of the blast. The radio had turned into background noise and I listened to it like a zombie, all the while creeping nearer and nearer towards the column of thick black smoke.

I exited at Pentagon City just before crossing the river. I knew DC was not where I needed to be today. Nobody needed to be in DC that day. I drove by the west side of the Pentagon as I sometimes did as an alternate route. Normally I would take special notice of the flat black Pavelow Blackhawk parked on the helipad and wonder what kind of super secret meeting some bad-ass general was being briefed on inside. Not today.

The west side was gone. Today it looked like a tire fire.

In retrospect, I'm actually astounded that anyone in the outer ring on the impact survived. I drove home and spent the next 24 hours, like everyone else, glued to CNN.'

- Anonymous Reddit user

6. 'I was a freshman in high school, 3 blocks away from the WTC site. I get out of the Brooklyn Bridge train station and smell something very very strong. I look up and all I see that the the Twin Towers are burning. It looked like some kind of movie.

My friends and I walk towards the school and the Headteacher tells us classes are cancelled. So we try to look for a phone to call our parents, on account of the fact that we're so close to the buildings. There were lines wrapped around the block for a pay phone.

So we wait, and wait. And then we leave. We've already missed the last train to Brooklyn so we take the a different line uptown. Big mistake. The minute we got on that train the towers collapsed while we were underground. We were there for several hours. I remember there was a blind man with his guide dog. I remember thumbing my necklace. And I remember my friends making light of what happened and wanting to drop kick them.

We finally get out of the subway and after a long saga we end up home crossing the Manhattan bridge. We arrive safely at 4:30 PM to our homes.

After that, school was out for 2 weeks. When classes resumed, we smelled burning flesh for 6 months. I will never ever forget that smell.'

- Reddit user Lifeonholidae

Where the Twin Towers once stood, there are now beautifully serene memorial pools and One World Trade - a symbol of new hope.