Thirteen years ago today, I remember walking across the Queens Plaza bridge to work and seeing the Twin Towers as I did everyday, and looking at them, which was something I regularly did.  Then, barely an hour later someone ran by my desk and told me a plane hit one of the towers and I got up and went to the window watching the unfolding horror with a growing crowd of people.  Workers were gathering on the roofs of other buildings watching as the smoke grew.  Then, the stunning impact of the second plane hitting the up-to-that point undamaged tower and the fireball that blew out of the side of the building.  I still remember seeing the flames popping out of both buildings and we were all wondering whether those buildings could even stand.  We could see the helicopters circling the buildings and wondering whether those helicopters were going to rescue victims, then one of the towers had a total collapse.  People watching were screaming, it was like nothing I had ever experienced.  The fact that it was only a few miles from where I was standing made the impact even greater.  At the end of the day, it was a surreal sight to see people coming off of the 59th Street Bridge from Manhattan looking like they came out of a zombie movie, covered in grey soot with looks of shock on their faces.  A number of people at work had relatives nearby and I knew some people who were in the general vicinity of the WTC.  I had just been at the shopping center in the WTC four days before, going to the Borders there and eating at the Sparro's in the center.  

      

The other tower collapsed and the smoke was so heavily that the downtown skyline was obscured as if it had disappeared.  I can still remember that smell that was in the air that was like a cross between electrical wires and chemicals burning, the smell that hung over the air for weeks, even months after that.  I remember seeing those signs all over the city, particularly on the wall of St. Vincent's Hospital, put up by people looking for their loved ones.   As soon as were allowed down there, some friends and I went to Church St. right in front of the ruins of WTC and it was overwhelming to see that amount of carnage firsthand.  Pieces of the Twin Towers were sticking out of other buildings, including the World Financial Center towers.  

Now, that area is changed so much that it is hard to believe that anything that devastating ever happened there.  New buildings, older buildings that have been repaired, new parks, it is all different.