My September 11th

The events of that fateful day five years ago today has become one of the most seminal events of this generation, I think its fair to say “there was the world before 9/11/01 and there is the world afterwards” and there seems no going back for any of us. For far more than the victims of that day and their families it has changed the lives of so many people around the world in ways that they could never have dreamed of and I was no exception.

At the time I was working for an Investment Bank in Canary Wharf, London. I had not yet met my wife and was seeing another woman who had taken a job in New York so I had applied for a position in our office in Manhattan due to start on September 30th. This was no easy matter at the time as the markets were going through turmoil as the “dot com bubble” burst in slow motion and banks throughout the sector were shedding staff like a dog sheds hair in the spring but I had established my worth and had an understanding boss to counter the mood of my increasingly impatient girlfriend.

It was a day like any other in the office but due to my impending relocation I was not as involved in what I was doing as I had been in the past when I was disturbed by murmuring from the desks behind me. As I did not have a clear view of the TV screen I got up to join a small group of colleagues who were watching the live news feed which showed smoke billowing out of the North tower of the world trade centre building. I asked what was going on but everyone just shrugged their shoulders, I think someone ventured that perhaps a light aircraft had accidentally hit the skyscraper. I stood watching for a few minutes but the news channel had little information on the incident so I went back to my desk. Within a few minutes a large crowd had gathered around the TV and included some senior managers so I got up again to see what was going on. By now the smoke was getting quite thick and it was becoming apparent that something much more serious had happened. Everyone wanted to know what had happened but the news station was only venturing educated guesses as the office audience slowly swelled.

I don’t know how long we had been watching, time seemed suspended when as the camera panned back to show both towers we could see a jet airliner appear from the left of the screen banking sharply towards the South Tower and as everyone stood there open-mouthed we watched it slam into the side of the building issuing a large red fireball as it was swallowed by the structure. I could hear a woman somewhere behind me scream and my boss muttered audibly to my right what was on everyone’s mind at that instant. “Oh my God, we’re under attack”.

By now the entire trading floor was up and away from their desks, riveted to the TV screens which by now were decorated by market feeds that had all flushed an ominous shade of red. I could hear a commotion coming from the sales desk which I was to later discover was because people on the phones had been dramatically cut-off from brokers in the tower mid-sentence. It was clear by now that we were watching history unfold but I think what made it all worse at the time was that we all wanted to know who and most importantly, why?

I went back to my desk to call my girlfriend but the phones lines to Manhattan were not connecting, I wasn’t too worried as her office was several blocks away so I sent an email and went back to the TV screen where the smoke was starting to clear a little around one of the towers and for a foolish moment I thought things might be getting better but as the cameras zoomed-in we could make out people waving from the hole made by the aircraft. “How the hell are they going to get them out?” a colleague ventured next to me but it was only moments later that we saw one of the worst moments I have ever seen on live television as one of them threw themselves out of the building to the streets below which brought a wave of inconsolable sobbing from the women of the office but I think most of the men, like me were just feeling angry and helpless; helpless that there was nothing that we or anyone else could do to stop it.

I know it was a selfish thought but by now the markets were in free-fall as billions were being wiped off the global economy and with a sinking feeling I knew that my transfer was in serious jeopardy, small potato that it was in the face of current events but with the market ticker in the corner of the screen blinking steadily southwards I couldn’t help but think that the USS Global Economy was now adrift at sea and with nobody at the helm. This was a dark day for the whole world.

I tried to make another call to Manhattan but to no avail.

What was to happen next was to take us all by surprise as the South tower suddenly collapsed down onto itself in a cloud of pulverised cement sending out an agonised roar as it went. All I could think of was how could anyone survive this horror and by now many of my male colleagues were crying as events became more and more like a terrible disaster movie.

Someone announced that they were evacuating Canary Wharf tower and now that nobody was doing any work managers started telling people they could leave if they wanted to. I knew my boss wanted me to stay so I quietly offered to stay put.

I got a call from my girlfriend’s Mother to say she was alright, one of her colleagues got through to her. Ironically she had been at a breakfast meeting on the 94th floor of the South tower but left only minutes before the first plane hit. She had been on the Metro at the time and was unaware of events until she got back to her office to face relieved colleagues. Most of the people who were in that meeting are not here today.

By now everyone was a mess, nerves wrecked and on edge so when the second tower came down it seemed like a surreal dream with a final twist of the knife which seemed so impossible that I was almost sure that it was a dream from which I was going to wake up any minute, but there was to be no reprieve as I slumped in my chair to gaze at the now surreal market data in an almost deserted office and wonder what the future had in store for us all. Without a doubt the world had just turned a corner and things were never going to be the same again.

So how did this change my life?

Well my transfer was postponed until April but my relationship was over within two months, I won’t go into details, so I never went to New York. But the truth is that was the best thing that could have happened to me because if it hadn’t been for that day I might have wasted more of my time with a woman who would have without a doubt ruined my life and I would not have met my beautiful and wonderful wife who brings me happiness every day. So its sometimes true what they say; that every cloud has a silver lining.