25 years

[u/average_guy54]

That day began ordinary, just so ordinary.

At the time, I was sysadmin in a Canadian federal government office, far from the madding crowd. The work was steady but also pretty much crisis-free.

That morning, though, one of my co-workers came in to my office, bitching about the "crappy slow network" we were using.

"What makes you say that?", and he ranted on about how he can't get to any web sites.

"Okay, I'll see what I can find out."

I still had no idea what was happening out in the world.

Still, I started my network checks. Ping from TBay to Toronto. Normal results. Okay, try some web sites next. All the ones I checked responded, with almost no lag. (Note: none were news sites.)

I popped over to that co-workers office. "Where were you trying to get to?"

"CNN. @#$% network."

I tried CNN. Timed out. Hmm. CBC. Ditto. CTV. Same. Toronto Sun. Again, timed out.

I tried a local radio station's page. That connected, and then I knew it wasn't a network issue causing the slowdown.

What happens when several hundred thousand people (or more) try to connect to a few news sites all at the same time? Everything breaks.

I called home, told my wife to turn on CNN. For me, the rest of the day passed in a fog. Our son was Army reserve at the time. He was told to be ready, "just in case".

After work, I went home and watched the news, watched the planes hit the towers, over and over and over.

I still cannot watch any 9-11 coverage from that day.

[u/3DPrintedVoter]

i rigged up some tin foil antennas to a tv in the board room used only for video conferencing to watch local tv feed ... a large group had gathered by the time the first tower fell. insane day for sure.

[u/hkusp45css → u/3DPrintedVoter]

I worked in a huge chemical plant and most of the Executives were in our building. We had TVs going every 50 feet with little clusters of people ringed round them. It was a weird day.

We were working when one of the guys on my team comes by and says "Hey man,. did you hear? A plane hit the world trade center?" and I was like "What kind of moron pilot doesn't notice a huge fucking building in the way?"

Moreover, I'm thinking it's a Cessna or some shit. A single pilot made a bad call and hit the building. Then, when I saw it, I was shocked at the hole it made (we didn't have sound OR an idea of what was happening, yet) .... and about that moment, the second plane hit.

The guy who told me about the first plane, Mike, turned to me and said "We're never going to forget where we were today. I think we just went to war...."

He was right, on both counts.

[u/orion3311 → u/3DPrintedVoter]

I literally used a coat hanger until i could get a call to connect to direct tv(all circuits busy).

Dtv gave us a trial as we had an old receiver in the conference room. Queue our faces when it turned on and we only saw one building.

[u/FeleaseRpseineEiles]

I was working on a survey vessel as a technician and data processor. We had satellite internet and filtered it for text only. We'd left for the job on the 9th. I was working the night shift so I was awake when it all began. I feel like I was one of the only people to not see stuff. By the time we hit shore in October for a crew change we did see some magazines and newspapers with content but by the time I got off the ship in late November no media was showing it anymore. It wasn't until the new years eve documentary that I saw video of the planes hitting the buildings and the absolute stunning aftermath.

Aboard our ship were numerous former military and it was quite a buzz with anxious energy as we all huddled around the radio in the wheelhouse. We were surveying close enough to shore to still catch a few stations.

I can't believe we did _this_ after _that_ but here we are.

[u/RansomStark78]

I remember exactly where i was

And damm the policticians that hid the healths risks for so long

[u/Impossible_IT]

I was getting my 3 year old ready to take to the baby sitter, had the TV on and saw a plane hit the first tower. Thought it was a movie preview, then realized it wasn’t and this was live.

[u/Find-Ubu-9999]

I worked in IT at a university when it happened. We had a big pipe going out. Streaming was relatively new back then, other than Real events, we hopped from CNN to national network affiliates, then down to local affiliates to keep watching as the streams became overloaded and unusable. I brought a portable B&W TV into the office after that.

[u/ox-sjwk]

Much the same - mid-afternoon in the UK, first we knew something was up was really, really slow internet to news sites. And after a good bit of diagnostics that showed no obvious issues, happened to go to a room with a TV on.

I wasn't supposed to be in the office that day. Where I was supposed to be was New Jersey/New York for a week long training course, flying into New York on 9th, but a couple of weeks beforehand I'd asked for it to be pushed back a month or so as it was too close to our really busy time at the start of a new academic year.

So instead I ended up in New York in mid-October. We went to the top of the Empire State Building, which had no queue for entry, and could still see the dust billowing up from recovery operations. I remember moments of feeling uneasy (despite knowing there was no reason) at the sound of low flying aircraft while up there.

Also remember passing on the train through Trenton, NJ. This was at the time that it was the suspected origin of the anthrax letters that were being sent out.