How a 9/11 Memorial tour guide remembers and chronicles that Tuesday morning many years ago

Late-summer morning, dawn of a new millennium. Bright, cloudless day — unlimited visibility.

Crunching, grinding explosion. Awake now, television on.

Salt and pepper smoke from one of the twins. 

Chyron: Plane hits World Trade Center.

How can that happen?

Another plane… a passenger jetliner. Another explosion. No accident.

Terror.

South tower vanishes. Cloud swells over the river. Particles flutter, fall. 

Confetti.

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I grew up on the top floor of a 40-story apartment building in Manhattan. My childhood bedroom window had an unobstructed view of the twin towers. 

They were a daily part of my life. And I took the view for granted. 

I’ve looked through old photo albums from my childhood years and noticed our family has very few pictures of the towers. We didn’t need to take photos because those quarter-mile-high buildings were already framed on our wall. 

The frame just happened to be a window.

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As a tour guide who leads walking tours of the Ground Zero area and the 9/11 Memorial, I tell stories about that painful day and the days, months, and years that followed. 

My goal is to pay tribute not only to all the souls lost but also to all the people who came to Lower Manhattan to recover victims, clear the rubble from the site, and rebuild. So very many of those brave, dedicated, and strong folks have gotten sick and many — too many — have died. 

9/11 wasn’t just one day. It is an ongoing tragedy that has had far-reaching impacts around the world.

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History is about people. 

The story of 9/11 is told through the people who died and those who lived. 

I want you to know about flight attendant Betty Ann Ong, who told the world what was happening.

You should know why the names of Richard Barry Ross, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, and Stacey Leigh Sanders, an office worker at 1WTC, are next to each other on the memorial parapet.

I want you to hear why firefighters loved Father Mychal Judge, a Roman Catholic chaplain with a personality bigger than a firetruck.

We need to talk about Abe Zelmanowitz and Eddie Beyea, who proved that friendship can be as strong as any family bond.

You need to be inspired by Firefighter Stephen Siller’s strength, dedication, and pure grit — which propelled him through a tube under the mouth of the East River so he could help people in the burning towers. 

We can learn from the example of Police Officer Moira Smith, who led dozens people out of the 2WTC — and kept going back in until the tower was gone.

And finally I need to tell you about Rick Rescorla — a man who proved time and again that he cared about others’ lives more than his own.

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Rising, Reaching
Floating on their breaths

Arching, leaping, traversing
The river’s mouth

And tumbling toward the
Kings’ Waterfront 

Shimmering, fluttering
Glimmering, stuttering

Stinging, prickling, tickling
Your
Face

And lingering
Forevermore