Why The Attack on The Capitol Was Worse Than 9/11
I was at work on the morning of September 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. I was sitting in my office in Kingston, New York, a town located about 90 miles north of Manhattan, when a colleague told me about it. I’d initially assumed it was a small plane that had flown into the building by mistake.
Eighteen minutes later a second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. Someone made an announcement over the office’s comm system that America appeared to be under attack.
My coworkers and I gathered around a TV in the conference room and watched the news as it unfolded. The South Tower, the second one hit, was the first to fall. With one collective gasp, we watched it collapse in a plume of smoke and debris.
My father had been in that building just minutes before, though I didn’t know it at the time. He’d been on his way down the stairs when the second plane hit, describing to me (days later) how people screamed and ran for the doors. He’d gotten out safely, walked to a nearby seaport, and took a ferry home to New Jersey.
Meanwhile, another plane had hit the Pentagon in D.C. and a fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania. I left work, rushing home to be with my husband and…
