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T206Collector...and working in Manhattan. I was about to get on the 2/3 line at Grand Army Plaza to head into midtown when a woman got out of the subway and said that there might be some congestion since a plane (a single plane at the time) had flown into the WTC. I shrugged it off, since a few days earlier a small flying contraption of some sort either nearly hit or hit the Statue of Liberty -- I thought it was nothing.
When the subway got to lower Manhattan, it didn't pull into any station below City Hall because of a "police investigation." When the doors opened at City Hall, a number of people got in -- most were visibly shaken, some were crying. It was at that point that we heard two planes had hit and that, obviously, it was intentional.
My subway continued uptown to Grand Central. When I exited on Lexington Avenue, in front of the Chrysler building, which was being evacuated, everyone was looking up in the sky -- they were all expecting more planes to come and hit the tall buildings in Manhattan.
I stayed at the office for a few hours, and then began to make my way home to Brooklyn. I had to walk downtown and then across the Manhattan bridge by foot. There was lots of smoke that smelled like sweet-sour burned plastic. A blackhawk helicopter swooped overhead. On the other side of the bridge in Brooklyn were people waiting for us with water and graham crackers.
I had left my window open in my apartment. When I returned, my apartment had (and for some time continued to have) the smell of burned plastic.
There was a steady stream of smoke over Brooklyn for days. There were also F-15's audibly flying over the city for days or perhaps a few weeks.