"On September 11th, 2001, I was living in Brooklyn and found myself close to the World Trade Towers as they burned and fell to the ground. * Foolishly close, I caught the collapse of the 1st Tower on tape, and was in a crowd of people that ran from and was caught in a huge cloud of dust. In this strange dust storm, I talked to a distressed man who said he was "the building manager", and caught a ride from a Peruvian good Samaritan back to Brooklyn with 2 Japanese girls who had been in the tower when it was hit. Camera rolling the entire time. 10 years later, I took out the tape and watched it again, and am sharing it with you.

* Q: How did it happen that I was there?

I woke up that morning in Brooklyn to the news that the World Trade Towers were on fire. An aspiring videographer, I grabbed my camera and caught what was probably the last train going into lower Manhattan before everything was shut down. When I got above ground I made my way towards the towers, the first of which buckled and collapsed within minutes of my arrival.

I was totally brash and foolish to be so close, to be sure - but in defense of my younger self, I left my house towards what I thought was a fire, and did not know about the planes until later - a fact might have clued me into the severity of the moment." - Ben