New York City
My Personal Story and Photos of September 11, 2001 by Denver Casado
(This post was originally written on Sept. 11th, 2011 – the 10th anniversary of 9/11)
While typically on this blog I write about my passion for theatre, today I’m going to write about my passion for New York City.
It’s the story of what happened to me on the morning of September 11th, 2001 – how it gave me a love and connection with New York City that I’ll never forget.
In the Fall of 2001, I was beginning my sophomore year at NYU.
In early September I moved into my new dorm, 200 Water Street; a giant 32-story high rise downtown in the financial district – 5 blocks away from the World Trade Center.
NYU was constantly running out of buildings to place their students in, so they would buy up any real estate they could whenever they could. When they leased 200 Water Street, it became by far the largest dorm in the U.S. (576 units)
I lived on the 14th floor, with giant living room windows facing south. On September 11th, we were in our second week of classes. On that Tuesday morning, I didnt have classes until the afternoon, so I was sleeping in, of course.
That is, until my cell phone went off around 8:50am.
It was my mom. She had seen on TV that the World Trade Center’s North Tower was on fire. She sounded concerned, but not frantic. She said “Turn on your T.V.!”
I didn’t have to – I looked out my windows and could see a huge cloud of smoke rising high in the bright blue sky. I saw the smoke, but not the North Tower, so I turned on the TV to get a better picture of what was going on. At this point, of course, nobody really knew anything, except that there was an explosion and the building was on fire.
Still on the phone with my mom, I said hastily “I’m going to go take some pictures, I’ll talk to you later.” I realize now this wasn’t the brightest idea.
I grabbed my disposable camera and ran down to the street. While I was riding the elevator down, the second plane hit the South Tower. By the time I emerged on Fulton Street, the scene was frantic.
I know it’s cliche, but I can’t help but describe it as a scene out of a movie – utter and complete chaos: people in shock, people crying, people who have fallen to the ground shaking. I vividly remember one man literally shouting for a doctor, trying to help a woman up. And this was still 5 blocks away from World Trade Center.
Fulton was a busy street that ran from my dorm directly to the World Trade Center. I slowly began to inch my way closer and closer to the World Trade Center, snapping pictures along the way.
There was broken glass everywhere. The impact of the planes hitting the buildings was so strong it shook the storefronts and shattered their windows.
The street was packed with people, all staring up in one direction. By this time I had heard from people on the street that it was a plane that had crashed into the second tower. But no one had any idea why, or how, or who was behind it. I remember hearing one guy in a group saying “This must be the Russians…the Russians are behind it!”
The most chilling part was that you could see people jumping from the top floors of the towers. Every time one of these tiny figures dropped through the air, there was a collective gasp from everyone on the street.
I was able to make it all the way to Broadway before the police stopped me and put up barricades. Broadway is exactly one block away from the World Trade Center. There is a church on that corner of Broadway and Fulton, St. Paul’s Church. I remember thinking it was completely surreal seeing the church spires with two burning buildings in the background.
Then, the unthinkable happened.
I began to hear a rumble. The rumble grew into the loudest rumble I’ve heard in my life, a sound unlike anything I’ve heard before. It shook every bone within me. My first and immediate thought was, “Oh my god, there’s another plane and it’s going to crash right onto Fulton Street”. It sounded like a plane was right above my head.
The South Tower was beginning to collapse.
The policemen immediately began shouting to everyone on the street, “Run! Run!” All of a sudden Fulton street was a mass of people running away from the World Trade Center, towards the East River, many people screaming along the way. I have no idea what I was thinking or what made me do it, but at that moment I felt compelled to take pictures, to document what was going on. I remember literally running for my life while holding the disposable camera facing it backwards over my head, snapping away. (You can see those pictures at the bottom of this blog post.)
It wasn’t until I was several blocks away that I turned around and saw the gigantic cloud of dust beginning to overtake the entire street. I ran for my dorm as quick as I could.
After running up 14 flights back to my dorm room, I walked into my living room and saw out my windows nothing but darkness. When I awoke that morning the sky was a brilliant blue, but now all I could see was dark, dark gray. The cloud of ash had overtaken all of downtown.
For the moment, we were told to stay in our rooms and turn off our air-conditioners. However I knew that we would be evacuated soon, and probably for a long time, so I began preparing a bag. I made myself three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and threw every snack I had into my backpack.
A couple minutes later, there was a knock at my door. “We’re evacuating! You must leave now! Walk north, towards the main campus!”
I grabbed my backpack, and headed down the stairwell, 14 flights. The stairwell was packed with students – 32 floors evacuating at the same time. I remember how eerily silent it was, and the somber look on every single persons face as we slowly made our way to ground level.
And I’ll never forget the moment I opened the exit door on the first floor and stepped out onto the street. It was like stepping out into a war zone. The air was filled with a haze of ash, and every surface was covered in at least 2 inches of ash. I had to pull up my shirt and use it to cover my nose and mouth to be able to breathe.
We slowly began our exodus north. At one point I remember there being a debate about whether we should walk over the Brooklyn Bridge or stay in Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge was packed with people trying to leave. Some people decided to go that route, but I chose to stay. It didn’t feel right leaving.
So I turned toward the center of Manhattan. And I am so glad I did.
I made my way to Broadway, the main vein of Manhattan, and began walking north.
This walk, from the financial district uptown to the village, is a walk that will forever cement in my heart that New York City is the best city in the world.
That morning, every New Yorker became “one”.
Every person on the street was looking out for one another, wanting to help any way that they could. There were the people emerging from downtown completely covered in ash, and then there were the businesses on Broadway offering any support they could. Businesses brought down their water coolers to help hydrate those that needed it. Every deli and restaurant was desperately handing out free bottles of water and sandwiches.
So many people came up to me and asked if I was OK, if I needed anything, if they could help in any way. I felt in that moment that, no matter what anybody says about New Yorkers, they have the biggest hearts, the strongest spirit, and the most sincere concern and generosity I’ve ever witnessed.
This continued block, after block, after block.
At this point, however, nobody on the street really had any idea about what just happened. From our perspective, the South Tower was on fire, then a plane had hit the North Tower, and then there was a rumble and a huge amount of ash everywhere. We assumed there was some sort of collapse, but how much? And how did all of this happen? And who was behind it all?
I remember there being these large crowds gathered around parked cars. These cars had their doors and windows open, with the radio blasting the news station. At the time, this was the only way we could get any information about what had just occurred. I stood in one of these crowds for a good 5 minutes, trying to make sense of it all.
I finally made it up to the NYU campus, and was told to go the college sports center, Coles Gym.
When I made it there, I felt a small sense of security and order for the first time. NYU was prepared for students coming from downtown. When I arrived there was table after table of bagels, food and water. They assured us they would take care of us.
I had tried several times to call my parents after I had last talked to my mom. However every time I tried I couldn’t connect – the cell network was down.
Finally, however, after arriving at Coles, one of my calls went through. I was able to talk to my dad for a good fifteen minutes, updating him that I was OK and relaying the events of the morning. It felt good to talk to him.
To be honest, the next few weeks were a bit of a blur, and probably warrants a whole other blog entry.
I will say that we were evacuated from Water Street for two weeks. We were not able to retrieve any of our belongings. When I had packed my backpack before evacuating, I had remembered PB&J sandwiches but unfortunately forgot my cell phone charger.
I got by the first few days by crashing with friends in different parts of the city. Eventually NYU made a deal with the Sheraton Hotel in midtown to house all of us “home-less” students. NYU also gave each of us $200 in cash for clothing, free meal cards, all new books, and a $50 gift card to Staples for school supplies. All in all, I was impressed with how NYU handled the situation given the circumstances.
While I can’t imagine what that morning represents for so many other people, for me it provided a completely new perception of New York City. I felt extremely proud to live in a community with people so strong, and so selfless, and completely united during one of the most tragic events in our history.
By Denver Casado
Denver Casado is a musical theatre composer/lyricist and founder of Beat by Beat Press.
Denver, Thanks for sharing your story.
I’ve resisted looking at any coverage or reading anything about that day until now. Thank you for sharing this. Sitting in my hotel room in San Francisco weeping over and missing my city … In a good way. <3
Brian, thank you for sharing your story. My heart goes out to all those who suffered and lost loved ones.
Thanks for sharing your story, Denver. It was very beautifully written and real (for lack of a better word/phrase). I’m so happy that you made it out of there; that I was able to meet you and have you as a friend; and that you were still around to meet Linda and make my friend very, very happy. Love you, dude.
Thank you for sharing your story and photos! I remember your mother sharing her concern and love for you on 9/11 and while you were “homeless”! So glad you were safe! Many prayers continue for those who lost loved ones!
Denver,
Thanks for sharing your story. It was such a tragic event, but knowing that people were drawn to love eachother in such a time of hate allows me to believe that love wins! Prayers for those families who lost loved ones on tat day.
Thank you for sharing this, Denver.
Thank you, Denver, for your personal touch to this event.
Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your story!
Thank you Denver for sharing your story and pictures. Your mom is now my youngest daughters teacher at Gettysburg. My two older daughters also went to Gettysburg but didnt have the opportunity of having your mother as their teacher. My second grader Grace came home and wondered why I didnt tell her about the World Trade Center attacks, as well as the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. She was so thrilled to know that Mrs. Casados son was there and took pics. Thank You so much for sharing your story, Frances
I’m so happy to hear my story and photos were used to help paint a picture of the event for someone who didn’t live through it. That means a lot to me. Thanks for the comment.
Denver – I read your story to my mom and Stacy last night. We were all so touched by your words. Stacy is going to read your post to her 6th grade class tomorrow. Such a powerful message should be shared, as her students were only 1 year olds when 911 occurred. Carol kept on reminiscing of you as a 2nd grader, identifying the traits you had then, and how those traits were still present in your actions on September 11, 2001. Thank you so much for sharing.
Fondly,
Niki Hintergardt-Yabrof
Thanks for the comment, Niki – so great to hear it’s going to be shared with Stacy’s 6th grade class, and I definitely remember your mom being one of my favorite teachers. 🙂 Hope all is well.
Pretty intense story i had no idea you were in school there. My dad lives in the bronx and helped out with some of the search and rescue teams there they had him working the the police department and what not. I saw some pretty intense pictures of his that he took. He also told me that someone made him turn his video camera off or they were going to take it from him when he was down there helping out, and tragedy makes people come together no matter what. Were only human were not monsters. Glad your ok and you made it through the whole ordeal i really dont understand how some of the people who were that close dealt with all the chaos. take care god bless
12 years later the memories still so vivid and your narration here brings me to tears . Forget? Never!
I lived on 17 (or 19? it’s been so long) in Water Street facing North and this brings back lots of memories from that day. I remember gathering in a strangers’ room on a low floor and feeling the building shake as we watched the towers fall simultaneously on TV, then all evacuating down the stairwells into the dusty street to head to Coles. I wonder how many of us were there that day and how we could piece it all together if we all shared in once place. Anyway, thanks for writing it all down.
Denver..that is the first time I’ve heard your story, though I’d heard bits and pieces from your folks. You tell with great sincerity and I was really moved. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for writing this, Denver. It’s good to hear your personal story.
Hi! I also lived there! Do you remember when we were allowed to move back in?? I am actually registering with the 9/11 fund just in case…