There are only a handful of moments in American life that split time into before and after—where you were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, when the Challenger exploded, when the Twin Towers fell. September 11, 2001, was one of those moments. To mark the 25th anniversary, we asked a range of people who were at Ground Zero, at the Pentagon, or hundreds of miles away that day to tell us about what they experienced and how they think Americans should remember it today. —The Editors
Jennifer Altman, a New York photojournalist, was driving to an assignment in Brooklyn.
On September 11, 2001, I was driving down FDR Drive to an assignment in Brooklyn when I looked up and saw the North Tower of the World Trade Center in flames. I pulled over and started shooting pictures until a police officer told me to get off the road. I parked near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and ran toward the towers, calling my photo editor from Newsday to tell him I was going there instead of my original assignment. Thousands of people were coming toward me; I was the only one running in the opposite direction. As I was running, the second plane flew over my head. I remember how loud it was and how close it felt. I ended up at Church and Fulton Streets, where the survivors were being helped.
I felt like all of my skills and photojournalism assignments had led me to be there at that exact moment. I followed my intuition. I always trust that part of myself. I know it will always lead me the right way.
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