Doug Strassler spent the early parts of his Sept. 11, 2001 morning watching the breaking news from New York City that would change America forever.
From his office at the Watergate building in Washington D.C., "everyone was just glued to their [television] set," the 2001 University graduate said. The tragic plane crash "shell-shocked everyone and left a sick feeling in the pits of all our stomachs."
Then along with millions of viewers all over the world, he watched helplessly on television as United Airlines flight 75 smashed into the second tower at the World Trade Center and exploded in a ball of flames.
"After the second crash, we knew it was a deliberate terrorist attack," Strassler said.
As they gazed out of their office window at the D.C. skyline around them, he and his coworkers felt "completely vulnerable ... we were all sitting ducks. If they were looking for landmarks, they could just as easily get us."
In a daze, Strassler and his colleagues then watched powerlessly from their windows as an airplane dropped from the sky and plowed into the outer ring of the Pentagon.
Strassler along with several other recent University graduates have been able to offer eye witness accounts on the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks that occurred yesterday.
"We could smell the smoke and feel the heat from the fire a half a mile away," Strassler said.
Everyone quickly evacuated the famous Watergate building and managed to get out of the city before traffic became gridlocked. They could "see the smoke and flames; could hear the sirens."
Blocks away, at the evacuated Capitol building, a similar story unfolded as "literally hundreds of people ran from the Capitol screaming," 2001 University graduate Nick West said.
After hearing the explosion of the crash, "everyone feared the worst ... We really expected the next plane to crash into the Capitol," West said.
As they tried to move to safety, those evacuated were confronted by images of kids screaming in their mother's arms, yellow caution tape everywhere and "homeless people trying to comfort crying women in business suits."
"It was the most chaotic thing I have ever seen in my entire life," he said.
Normal operations of federal agencies and businesses throughout the city ground to an immediate halt.
"No one knows if we're working tomorrow or even if they're open. Everything has come to a standstill," Strassler said.
In the nation's financial capital, Steve Garfickle watched as two aircraft shut down a city.
Working in his office off Union Square in Manhattan, the 2000 University alumus bore witness to the tragic drama that unfolded yesterday morning.
"I saw the second plane crash into the tower and watched it collapse," Garfickle said.
Evacuating his building quickly, he headed north on foot out of the city because "everything was stalled and closed off."
America and the University community was there, watching with Garfickle as victims of the attack leapt to their deaths from the 110 story buildings. Eye-witnesses and television viewers looked on as the buildings collapsed on themselves, trapping hundreds of workers and rescuers inside, watching in horror as invincible notions of American security and peace fell with them.
The enormous tragedy hit the University particularly hard.
Everything also came to a standstill yesterday morning on Grounds as students walked slowly to classes in a daze, struggling desperately to get through crowded cell-phone networks to reach loved ones who work in the Pentagon or New York City.
Boasting Darden and Commerce school credentials, many University graduates go to work every year for the financial institutions housed in the World Trade Center. Last year alone, at least 10 graduates are believed to have gone to work in the building complex that now lies in ruins.
"A lot of U.Va. alumni go to work for Solomon Smith & Barney, in a building that was engulfed in flames and about to collapse," as of yesterday evening, Garfickle said. "Everybody is in a state of complete shock"
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