Jim Fuger ’82 Recalls His 9/11 Experience

The following article was originally published in September 2021 and has been republished for the September 2024 eDelt.

This month marks the 20th year since 9/11. Joe Gradisher ‘79, recently retired Navy Captain, summed up the situation succinctly:

“This was one of the signature events in the history of our country, where those of us who were alive at the time remember exactly where we were and what we were doing when we learned of the attack. My parents experienced that with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The day that President Kennedy was assassinated was another of those events. It is a part of history that has had, and will continue to have, a lasting impact on the lives of all Americans. Our lives were forever changed that day.”

In recognition of that horrific day, we have asked for your remembrances of where you were as it was unfolding. Two of the returns stood out so much that they need to be published. Due to their extreme length, we’ll publish one this month and the other in our next issue. The first was written by Jim Fuger, class of ’82, on October 8, 2001, a month after the attacks:

In mid-July, I started a new job with our Benefits & Investment Solutions area at our new Corporate Campus in our US Private Client Group. We are the marketing arm of our tax-deferred retirement accounts (401 -k, IRA, etc.). On Tuesday morning, September 11th, I was to attend a Hyperion software seminar in mid-town Manhattan.

As it turned out, traffic had me running about 15 minutes late so that I wound up on the last PATH train that arrived at the World Trade Center. I believe I was waiting on the Jersey City’s Exchange Place PATH train platform when the first plane struck the north WTC Tower. As I was boarding the train, I met an acquaintance, Eric, from my former job, disembarking. We shook hands, exchanged pleasantries and then I got on the train. The doors shut, and some guy, who had just made it onto the train, said “By the way, in case anybody cares, about 10 floors of one of the Trade Center towers are on fire.” And off we went to the WTC! The WTC station seems to be located directly under the North Tower.

[ Note: 1 World Trade Center is also referred to as the “North Tower” and was the first one hit while 2 World Trade Center is also referred to as the “South Tower” and was second to be hit. However, the South Tower was the first to collapse as it sustained worse damage from the impact. I will refer to them as the North Tower and the South Tower from now on.]

We got off the train to hazy smoke and emergency personnel telling us to simply “evacuate the building”. I made my way up the escalators and headed left. As I exited the building, I noticed debris on the sidewalk and people outside looking up. So I walked across Vesey Street (north side of the complex), turned around, looked up and saw the North Tower on fire with a “rip” through it (you’ve all seen the pictures). At this point someone said a plane had crashed into it, so I thought, as apparently many other people did, that it must have been a small private plane that had accidentally hit it (pilot heart attack). Unlike many who were standing there watching it, I was afraid that even a small piece of falling debris could be dangerous, so I started to head east towards Broadway. There were many people who were in varying emotional states (disbelief, panic, etc.). I also heard someone say they saw bodies falling, further reinforcing my desire to get out of the area as soon as possible.

I did see someone with a disposable camera taking pictures so, realizing the historical nature of what was happening, I thought I might buy one to chronicle the events from a safe distance. I was crossing Broadway at Vesey looking for a store that might have a camera, with my back to the Towers, when I heard the explosion of the second plane. I immediately turned around to see the fireball expanding in my direction and was able to slightly feel the heat and the shock wave. Everybody started to run until we were sure the explosion wouldn’t reach us. I thought it was the gas lines in the North Tower blowing up. I think a building was partially blocking my view, leaving only the South Tower visible, which I mistook for the North Tower. Then somebody said “Oh my God, it’s the second tower! I realized then that it must be the South Tower and thought they had planted a bomb up there. I decided to head uptown to Penn Station where my original destination was, thinking it would be the best way out of the city. I hopped on the Lexington Ave line (4,5 & 6) about 9:15 and arrived at Grand Central around 9:30. It was on the subway that someone told me the second one was a plane too and that both must have been hijacked.

When I arrived at Grand Central, I looked for payphones and tried unsuccessfully to call my wife, Kay, and my boss, Paul Dully. They were the only two that knew I was going to be in NYC that morning. I knew that the whole world would be aware of these events in a matter of minutes and that Paul, and particularly Kay, would be worried about me (she tends to be a pretty good worrier even during times of tranquility). I had decided to travel light that day as the meeting was only planned for the morning, so I had left my briefcase in the car and had only taken a notebook and pen – hence no cell phone. However, given the lack of success most people were having with their cells, I don’t believe this was any great loss. When I tried a credit card call from a payphone, I got a dial tone, dialed the number, but instead of getting the credit card tone, it began to ring and nobody answered it. This occurred at several different payphones.

I then decided to bead west towards Times Square. I still was not sure whether I should go to this meeting (so that they would know I was safe and maybe they would have some info on what to do) or just try to head home.

 As I was walking down 42nd St (trying different pay phones along the way), someone told me one of the Towers had collapsed. Upon hearing this, any thought of going to the meeting vanished. My sole focus became getting home (and notifying Kay/Paul along the way that I was okay), so I headed straight towards Penn Station. My thought process was that I might be able to catch either a PATH or a New Jersey Transit train to NJ. I’d have to switch trains or walk a little but, at that point, I’d take anything to New Jersey. I couldn’t find the PATH station, but I did find myself right where they board the New Jersey Transit trains. I knew that would take me to Newark and, from there, I hoped to either cut back on the PATH to Jersey City or call Kay to pick me up.

They announced a 10:37 AM departing train, which I was able to get on. I didn’t get a ticket as I didn’t think they would bother collecting them. The doors shut, the train moved about a foot, everyone cheered, and then the conductor said, “The authorities want to check the tunnel. Please stand by”. After a couple of minutes, they announced that the train had been canceled and the station was closed — please evacuate the building. I went out the nearest exit and found myself sharing the time with:

• A man who escaped from the 19th floor of the South Tower — he had nothing but the clothes on his back.
• A man who worked in One Penn Plaza (across the street from the Train Station — he had also been sent home) and
• A woman who was heading to Long Island (not sure where she came from)

 

It was at this time that I heard about the Pentagon and another crash in “Pittsburgh”. I had also heard a rumor that the Sears Tower in Chicago had been hit (later changed to just evacuated). I borrowed the lady’s cell phone and got through to Paul’s voice mail. I left him a message that I was OK and to please try and get a hold of Kay on her cell. I also continued to try and reach Kay. All I was able to get from her cell phone number all day was James Earl Jones’ voice telling me, “The Verizon customer you are trying to reach is unavailable, please try again later”. I thought she was either out of charge or had it turned off. She later told me that it was on all day. Apparently, due to cell phone problems throughout the area, I was not able to get through.

I decided that I wasn’t going to passively sit outside of Penn Station for an indeterminate amount of time waiting for them to resume trains to New Jersey. If it was going to be a long day with potentially lots of walking, I might as well make sure my feet didn’t give out, so I proceeded to Macy’s to buy a pair of tennis shoes. There weren’t many employees left there, but there were several other customers also buying tennis shoes! I then proceeded to walk down Broadway to 5th Avenue, through Washington Square Park and NYU (I’m an MBA student there), where I thought I’d be able to get on the internet and get information about my options on how to get home. I also thought, if it came to sleeping in NY that night, it might provide safe haven (i.e. the library). Lunch was a hot dog and a bottle of water from a street vendor on the way.

When I got to NYU, the phones seemed to be working a lot better. I was able to get hold of my mother, who had no idea I was in NY, and I asked her to try to get hold of Kay. I also left messages on both our answering machine and my dad’s. Then I went on the internet to check New Jersey Transit and PATH sites for their service status. It looked like everything was still shut down.

I finally reached Kay (who was much relieved) and asked her to check the TV for a way out of the city. Kay came back and said the TV was saying they were ferrying people out, so I went to the NY Waterway website, and sure enough, they had abandoned their normal routes and schedules, but were continuously running 2 routes that would work:

• One from Battery Park (southern tip of Manhattan) to Colgate (which is where I was parked) and
• One from 38th Street to Hoboken, from where I knew I could take the PATH to Colgate.

 By this time, it must’ve been around 4:30 pm.

At first, I walked toward downtown since that was the closest departure point and took me directly to my car. However, after heading in that direction and seeing the huge amount of smoke and dust still engulfing the area, I figured the Battery Park ferry must be for those people who were already down there. So I turned uptown and headed to the 38th St Pier. This walk took me past St. Vincent’s Hospital where most of the victims were being taken. As was later reported in the press, they had excess emergency “capacity”, because most people had either sustained minor injuries or were missing all together. It was still quite a scene there with emergency people, media, and by this time, the National Guard.

The walk to the ferry took about an hour and I arrived around 6:15 pm. I boarded about 6:30 and we proceeded down and across the Hudson to Hoboken. All the passengers were very quiet. We had a good view of downtown – the smoke and ash still billowing from where the Twin Towers used to be. It was very strange to see how different the skyline looked without these famous landmarks.

We arrived in Hoboken around 7 pm. The emergency workers at the dock said, “If you were within 10 blocks of the World Trade Center, please get in this line for asbestos treatment, otherwise proceed ahead”.

I figured I was on my way to the PATH train, my car and then home. However, when I got to the end of the walkway that they had set up, everyone was backed up. I heard them say, “If you have cell phones or laptops, we have plastic bags for you. Everyone gets hosed down for asbestos dust.”

I asked if that meant everyone, regardless of where you spent the day, and they replied, “Everyone.”

They gave me a bottle of water which was quite welcome as I had become quite thirsty from my walk uptown on what was still a beautiful day (weather-wise). I then proceeded through the “shower” – a couple of firemen on either side with their firehouses on “low spray”. After getting soaked from head to toe (including my new tennis shoes), they gave us towels and let us on our way.

I took a PATH train to the Grove St. Station in Jersey City, walked the couple of blocks east to Exchange Place (right on the Hudson) and got in my car. Since they had closed the turnpike and the Pulaski Skyway (the normal routes out of Jersey City), I had to drive due west through town to get out. There were National Guard and police at every corner. As a result, it really felt like you were in a war zone.

I arrived home at 8:15 to a warm welcome from my family. I was glad I was in time to see President Bush talk at 8:30 as, by then, my thoughts had turned to what we, as a country, were going to do about this, both from a punishment and preventive perspective.

Epilogue:

As I complete this on October 8, we are bombing Taliban targets in Afghanistan, beginning the process of wiping out the terrorist cells who had orchestrated the suicide hijackings. My thoughts and prayers, along with those of almost all the rest of the world, go to the more than 6,000 victims and their families and to the rescue workers who have been working around the clock for almost a month trying to find any survivors.

There has been some discussion on what should ultimately be done at “ground zero” (i.e. rebuild the towers or a memorial). My opinion is that we should do both. I think they should build four towers in remembrance of the passengers on each of the four planes and make them slightly taller than before. This would demonstrate to the world and, in particular to the terrorists, that America will not only rebound, but will come back stronger than ever before!