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Comment by Geoffrey M. Giordano on April 14, 2009 at 16:08

I was in Montreal on a brief vacation when I awoke in the hotel Tuesday morning, turned on CNN as usual, and eventually saw the attack unfolding in Manhattan. I lived in Jersey City at the time, in an apartment overlooking WTC from Jersey City Heights. Had I been there, I'd have been one of the hundreds of people who eventually crowded Riverview Park and watched the horror unfold. Having been in JC since late 1993, I often saw jetliners routed along the Hudson River, so an accident seemed plausible — until the second plane hit on live TV. I was on the phone with my father when that plane struck; I hung up immediately, packed my suitcase, ran downstairs, checked out, and started driving home before the border closed. Hitting speeds up to 100 mph, I hugged the highways along the Hudson, figuring I'd dart east over the river to pick up my parents were another attack to unfold. Meantime, I pulled a pad onto the passenger seat and started sketching a poster 1A, figuring no traditional big-story treatment was going to do the story justice. Needless to say, when I rushed into the newsroom between 3-4 p.m., people were more than a little surprised to see me. I went straight to my tube and started mocking up what I'd sketched, using various AP rubble and debris photos. I flagged the page to Henry Freeman, our editor, and he said go with it. I then went into another news meeting in progress to let them know the new plan. Then we waited for the right photo (I also banged out 2A, an expanded refer page to all the coverage throughout the paper). Ricky Flores turned in the spectacular flying-flag image from ground zero. Poynter featured this page among 100 of the nation's best in its commemorative 9/11 book.