This is the exact spot where I was standing on the morning of September 11, 2001 when the terrorist attacks occurred. It's a little park adjoining the back lawn of the White House of Washington, DC. The Eleventh was the second day of my brother's vacation in DC. He, my sister-in-law, and a couple of their friends came out to visit me and see the sights. They'd toured the National Mall on their own the day before while I went to work, but I took the Eleventh off so I could take them on a tour of the White House. I don't remember what else we had planned to do that day.
The four of them had battled DC traffic the day before, but on the Eleventh we followed my usual commuting pattern instead. We caught the bus that stopped at the end of my street and rode it to the Pentagon, where we caught the subway into the District. We got into DC at a little after 7:00 a.m. to get in line at the White House Visitor's Center for tour tickets, only to find that because it was no longer peak tourist season, they weren't bothering with tickets. Tours started at 9:00 a.m. and if you wanted to go on one you just got in line at this little park and waited your turn. After finding that out, we went to get breakfast, spent some time sitting around in Freedom Plaza, and then came to this spot to get in line.
We were standing there along with a gaggle of other visitors. The squirrels in that park were very accustomed to people and they were coming up and eating out people's hands while other tourists laughed and took photos. It was just another quiet, pleasant, run-of-the-mill morning in Washington, DC. My sister-in-law, who is very friendly, wandered up to the head of the line to chat with the NPS ranger who was standing there and then came back to relay the fact that he'd told her two planes had just hit the Twin Towers in New York. I knew something was happening then. One plane could have been some sort of accident. Two had to be something more sinister. I was puzzled and uneasy but didn't know what to make of things at that point.
My sister-in-law then went off to visit the ladies' room at the Ellipse and shortly thereafter my brother and I looked up and saw a crowd of people running in our direction and away from the White House. The White House was being evacuated. My brother and I walked over to the ladies' room to corral my sister-in-law and that's when I saw an enormous cloud of smoke on the horizon to the southwest. It was the widest and darkest cloud of smoke I'd ever seen and it just kept pouring up into the sky. My sister-in-law caught up with us and told us someone had said another plane had hit the CIA building. I remember frowning in the direction of the smoke column and saying "that's not where the CIA building is. The CIA is out in the middle of nowhere." Then after a pause it hit me. "That's where the Pentagon is." We had just been there a few hours earlier.
I knew then we had to put some distance between us and any other likely targets. I grabbed my brother and my sister-in-law and we went to retrieve their friends who were still standing along this wall. The four of us then started heading toward the Federal Triangle subway station to take the train home. At that time, I lived on the border of Alexandria and Annandale. The nearest Metro stop to me was the Van Dorn Street Station. We'd have to catch a bus there that would take us to my apartment. I knew we weren't going to be getting off at the Pentagon and catching the bus that had brought us in.
On our walk to the Federal Triangle station, one of my sister-in-law's friends stopped to film the scene with her video camera. I was more than a bit brusque and bluntly told her that now was not the time to be taking movies. Now was the time to be getting the hell out of town. We got on a train and headed toward Virginia. There was a small, Middle Eastern-looking man on our train who looked absolutely terrified that he would be singled out and attacked by an angry mob. My sister-in-law, who is one of the sweetest women you could ever meet, tried to reassure him and make him feel better as our train traveled along.
After making a few stops, the train driver came over the PA and told us that no trains were going south of the Pentagon station. We were going to be stopping at Rosslyn, where we could catch a bus to take us further. Things were surprisingly organized when we got off at Rosslyn and went outside to the street. There was a Metro supervisor there who told us where to stand and informed us that buses were on the way to take us south into Virginia. He wasn't sure how long it would take for them to arrive.
I thought it would most likely be at least another half-hour before the bus came, so I walked across the street to a fast food restaurant to buy a drink. I had just bought my drink when I looked out the window and saw that a bus was pulling up. I hustled back across and the street to rejoin my brother and company and we piled on that first bus leaving Rosslyn. The bus driver told us that she would be taking us to the Pentagon City station where we could catch another subway train to continue our journey.
That's when our odyssey really began. Before we'd gotten much farther south Metro HQ contacted our bus driver and told her she couldn't take us to Pentagon City. We then wound up making multiple loops around Rosslyn and along the Potomac River. I remember pointing out the Watergate Complex to my brother and sister-in-law and then seeing it go by again several time as we kept driving in circles while our driver was on the radio with Metro HQ seeking new instructions.
I'd never seen so many people out walking along the streets. Most hadn't been as fortunate as we had been in catching a bus and they were all streaming homeward on foot along the side of the roads. As we were making multiple circuits of Rosslyn, I tried to call my parents on my cellphone to let them know we were all right, but the network was overloaded and I couldn't get a dial tone. My sister-in-law didn't have any better luck in trying to reach her and my brother's children.
Finally, the bus driver announced that she would be taking us to Shirlington. I knew that we could catch a bus there that would take us to my apartment. When we got to Shirlington, my sister-in-law walked over to a gas station to use the rest room and when she came back she told us what she'd seen on the news reports on the tv at the gas station. She'd also finally been able to get through to my niece to let her know that we were all okay. I still hadn't had any luck in reaching my parents.
We waited at the Shirlington stop for about 30 minutes before the bus came and finally took us home. From the phone in my apartment I was at last able to call my parents and reassure them that we were okay and tell them we had gotten out of DC and were back safe at my place. Like everyone else in the country, we then spent the rest of that day sitting in front of the tv as the news of that day's tragic events unfolded. Like everyone else in the country, we were also shocked, saddened, frightened, worried, confused, and angry.
But we were alive and healthy and together and that is a great blessing that many other thousands of people were denied that terrible September day.
(Taken with my Nikon Coolpix S200)
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