My father ran a small construction firm. He took it over from my grandfather, who took it over from my great-grandfather. The firm had deep roots in NYC and my father was proud of having been involved in building some of the city’s infrastructure. One of those things was part of the foundation of the World Trade Centers. He wrote his description of September 11th twenty-five years ago today, a few days afterwards.
From: Neumann Jr. GA <GANeumann@spearin.com>
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 1:27 PM
The city Tuesday night reminded me of San Francisco after the earthquake. It was very quiet, restaurants were closed and those few that were open were very subdued. There were virtually no cars on the streets other than police and emergency and they were all rushing with flashers and sirens.
The blocks that had police stations or hospitals on them were barricaded, some with yellow tape, some with garbage trucks parked in the intersection. There were police barricades at 42nd street and the downtown avenues to keep traffic from heading south. Tuesday morning, almost all of the traffic on 34th street was fire trucks, ambulances and rescue vehicles, by the afternoon it had changed to heavy demolition equipment and gas and power trucks. I ate lunch with some of the people from the office on Tuesday in a place a couple of blocks from the office; unless there is an event at the convention center, there are normally 10 or 12 people in there. Yesterday there must have been 60 at the bar. Loud but not boisterous or jingoistic, the president came on TV and there was instant silence. An incredible sense of sadness permeated the place.
Wednesday night I walked downtown. The last time I saw the Towers was Tuesday morning from the roof of our apartment building. The first time I went up, both buildings were on fire, the second time, only one was standing. I couldn’t bear the thought of going up another time to see that there was nothing there.
I’ve gone down the west side highway hundreds of times, so often that I no longer saw what I was looking at; Wednesday there was a hole in the sky where the buildings should have been.
The police were only letting non-rescue workers down as far as Houston street, about 30 blocks north of the Center and yet there were thousands of people going or coming, on foot, to verify with their own eyes that it was not just a horrible nightmare. At Christopher street, there were hundreds of people standing by the sides of the road, applauding the workers as they came out of the site. Walking back up town, I passed a location where about a hundred ambulances were parked, some from New England and Ohio. I realized that they were parked so far from the site because there was nothing for them to do and then it hit me that soon they would be leaving because there were so few survivors.
On Thursday, we were asked to help one of the contractors at the site to seal the pipelines coming in and out of the Center that had carried water for the air conditioning system. They are afraid that water might come through the pipes flooding the basement. We will also look at the PATH tubes, water from broken water mains is getting into the tubes and has caused flooding at the station in New Jersey. Several of us went downtown to see where we could get access to the pipelines to do the work.
One of my first jobs for the company was when we did the cofferdam that was used to hold the cellar excavation for the Center. Since then, we have probably done ten or twelve jobs at the World Financial Center or Battery Park City so I know the area well. What I saw was beyond comprehension. No television picture or photo can describe the devastation, it was impossible to take it all in at once. Lying across Vesey street is a mountain of debris from building seven, it looks like a huge beaver dam made of steel sticks. The pile of debris at the Center is not believable. Sticking out of it are sections of the walls of the center looking like the rib cage of a dead animal. To me those ribs will always symbolize the utter desolation of the place. There were hundreds of rescue workers at the site with more equipment than could ever be used. Most of the workers were just waiting to be called on. There is not enough safe area for all of them to be working at once.
Driving back up town we stopped to pick up six firefighters from Stamford CT. They were volunteers who were walking back to Penn Station so they could go home after working for two days. We passed through the crowd at Christopher street who were applauding and holding up signs thanking the workers. I have never before had an experience that so fully showed the decency, caring and goodness of ordinary people. These were people who wanted to do something to help and were doing the best possible thing. Everywhere down there are people and stands giving out water and juice and sandwiches. At Christopher street, they passed into the truck packages of sandwiches and bottles of water. I opened one of the baggies and next to the sandwich was a picture and a note asking if anybody had seen their sister.