REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
On Thursday, September 11, we are commemorating the twenty-fourth anniversary of one of the worst days in our nation’s history. On that day in 2001, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center burned and ultimately crumbled to the ground. We also saw the Pentagon in flames and an airplane go down in Pennsylvania. Terrorists commandeered flights and took nearly 3,000 innocent lives. Here in Bayonne, twelve of our residents were taken from their families. The images from that day, the emotions we felt, and the pain that was inflicted on us will stay with us forever.
I was still a police officer in 2001. I used to work from 7:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., and I was sleeping when the initial plane hit. Then the second plane hit and that’s when a friend called me. My cell phone was ringing next to me. I picked it up and my friend told me what happened.
On September 11, 2001, there was an atmosphere of chaos and shock throughout the region. After the terrorist attacks, I worked all night, and then in the morning I went to Jersey City, signed in to join the emergency operations in New York, and got on a tugboat. I spent the next four days at Ground Zero.
Before my police career, I worked on Wall Street, so Lower Manhattan was familiar to me. When I got off the tugboat that Wednesday, walking toward the World Trade Center, I had no sense of direction, because the buildings weren’t there anymore. Those buildings were so big, that no matter where you were in Lower Manhattan, you knew where you were. When I got there the morning after, it was almost surreal. There was rubble like I had never seen before.
In the years since, the new World Trade Center has risen from the rubble. It stands proudly today. We think about the sweat and toil that so many workers put in on that site to move past the dark days, and put in its place a towering structure that stands as a beacon of the strength and ingenuity of our workers, and our great nation. The neighboring memorials on the site of the original World Trade Center will always remind us of the people we lost on September 11, 2001. The new tower is a sign that we are determined to overcome that terrible day.
