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It was surreal morning in Brooklyn.
I got up somewhere between 9 and 10am. My back then apartment's window' view was facing Manhattan, I usually could see top of city's skyscrapers of downtown on a horizon line , including one of WTCs (one with antenna). That morning I looked in the window and sow dark strangely-stretched cloud over downtown Manhattan of that area, I thought to myself "must be a storm brewing".
That day I needed to go to the city to get a visa for my travel plans following Friday that week. Got in a car and went my way. Strangely all roads were empty which are usually pretty busy in the mornings. When I got to Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, I sow what I thought was fog up a head; closing in on it could see it wasn't fog but couldn't make what it was.
Couldn't believe how empty roads were. When I approached ramp to Brooklyn bridge there was a cop's car blocking entrance. Cop told me the bridge is closed. I asked why, what happened? He pointed across to the city and that's the first time when I sow few miles across something terrible that was happening, there were clouds of smoke around WTC area, one building standing in fire on some of its floors. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, couldn't make anything of it and was just in shock and speechless. The cop have told me something I don't remember exactly, something that I couldn't stay there and must come back where I came from or something in that nature. In shock I went further to get off and possibly make a u-turn to go back. Once I got off the highway I was stuck in almost non moving bumper to bumper traffic for the rest of the day, pretty much with no cell phone connection and seen tons of people passing by coming from the city through Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. By then I was listening to radio and followed the news. Been trying to reach my family and friends to see if everyone was ok, constantly trying do dial them all, once in a while calls went through.
Fortunately no one from my circles who worked in the city got hurt at this tragedy and didn't lose anyone close to them. I was on 100 something floor at one of the buildings one of two weeks prior, meeting regarding possible consulting work there which luckily for myself didn't workout.
Next few months NYC was like a war zone, filled with military, police, constant emergency evacuations at airports and NYC's various buildings, people filled with tragedy, fear and uncertainty.
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