The map below should show you where I work versus where the two towers were. Around 8:45 I was working at my computer and heard some people in my office shouting to look at the TV. One of the towers was on fire and we went and looked out the window (I work on the 8th floor) and could see straight up that there was fire and smoke billowing out of the tower. There were charred pieces of paper floating in the air in front of our building. When an eye witness on TV said it was a big passenger jet, we couldn't believe it. I called my wife, Greta, to tell her what happened, but I got her voice mail. I went outside with friends Nadia, Sagi, and Jamie. Jamie had a digital camera. We went up Maiden Lane, the street I work on, and had a straight shot of the tower on fire. We took a bunch of pictures. Then we moved up and over to Liberty and Broadway and were about two blocks away from the other tower. We couldn't really see the tower on fire from this point, just the smoke shooting up in the air. About a thousand people were standing around in the streets and in a cement park on the other side of broadway looking up. A dozen fire engines and cars came down Broadway and turned onto Liberty towards Church street, which is the street in front of the towers. As about half of them had turned the corner, I heard a noise that sounded like a plane. I looked up and didn't see the plane, but half a second later, about 7 or 8 floors in the second tower blew out in a fireball. My friend Nadia told me later that she saw the plane right before and thought she was hallucinating. Pieces were falling on the people within a block of that tower and immediately people turned and ran screaming away from the building. I really hadn't processed what had just happened for a few seconds. I wasn't in any immediate danger as nothing was falling down on me. There was a lot of crap in the air that made it very irritating on my contacts. My friends and I ran back to the office and watched over the next half hour the other events in DC. The building supervisor had told eveyone over the loudspeaker it was safest to stay on their floors. I called my parents and happen to catch my mom home. She was freaking out, but I told her I was safe. We were all standing around watching CNN and MSNBC on two different TVs, discussing how unbelievable the whole thing was. Then our building shook and there was a loud rumble. We ran to the window and looked outside. A tidal wave of gray smoke and debris was heading straight down Maiden Lane. It must have been ten stories tall. We closed the window and ran to the front of the office, farthest from the windows. The TV was saying there had been a collapse of the second tower, the one I saw get hit. Now the building supervisor was on the loudspeaker again telling everyone to evacuate. I was able to call Greta to let her know that was what was going on and I was safe. I also managed to send of some instant messages on the computer to friends who were online. Outside, it was pitch black. Most of us went downstairs and had to sit in the stairwells on the bottom few floors as the lobby was all filled up. After about 20 minutes, we got tired of sitting around not knowing what was happening, so we went back up to the 8th floor. I tried calling my mom again, but couldn't get the phone to work. We were told to go to the basement where there was a fitness center with tons of TVs. The entire building was down there. We brought down flats of pop for people to drink and a box of T-shirts for anyone who wanted to go outside. People were wetting the T-Shirts and covering their mouths and noses. As we were walking down there, we were informed of the other building collapse. We didn't know. We stayed downstairs for about 45 minutes and then a bunch of us decided to make a break for it. By this time, the air was a bit better. You could see for a block or two and as long as your face was covered, you could breathe. The streets were surreal. Like a ghost town, there was nothing moving in any direction. As we walked, people were being so nice. Grocery stores were handing out water to anyone who needed it. A guy came by on a bike and was giving away surgical masks to cover our faces. We made it to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked over. It had been closed to traffic, so people were walking on the right side where cars drive and in the middle which is where the walkers normally go. There were tons of people in Brooklyn. No subways were running so everyone was walking or lining up for a LONG wait for a bus. Every bus I saw was jam packed. I brought a few friends with me back to my apartment. It took us two hours to walk home. I logged into IM when I got home and immediately got hit with dozens of friends asking if I was OK and the ones in NYC telling me their stories. My friend Muk came over to join us because he was home alone. No one wanted to be alone. Eventually, everyone was able to get rides to come pick them up after the exhausting day.