6:45am Thursday

ell, tonight was interesting. I have been walking around lower Manhattan for the past three hours. No real new information, but at least I got some exercise. I left here shortly before three. I had planned to just go back to the internet cafe to e-mail something out to all of you (if their lines were still up) and come right back home and go to bed. My friend was working there alone, so I stayed there while she counted out the receipts and closed the place up. She had to walk to a subway pretty far south into the "forbidden zone", so I went along with her to make sure she got there safely. We were stopped by police and asked for ID. She showed hers -- I didn't have to show mine. The police seemed glad that she had an escort. She got to the subway all right, and I was about to walk home. Then I realized that I was quite into southern Manhattan, and might not be able to get back down here for a while. So I went for a walk. I do definitely consider this area part of "my neighborhood."

I think I was walking down Essex Street. By the time I got to Canal there was either no more smoke smell, or I had just gotten that used to it. I think it was the former. I continued further south on Pike street, along the East River, beneath the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges. I was walking beneath the elevated portion of the FDR Drive, and it was almost pitch black. There were no lights. I thought I heard helicopters. I saw several sanitation department trucks zoom past me (going north, away from the WTC) with police escorts.

I first started seeing ash on the streets and cars at South Street and Robert F. Wagner Place. The lighted display of a building across the river in Brooklyn said it was exactly 5:00am, and 16ºC (that is more of a reference for myself than anyone reading this). The streets here were completely empty & totally quiet except for occasional teams of Con Edison and Sanitation crews doing repair work, and the intermittent sounds of sirens. During my entire time out tonight, I was the only pedestrian that I saw. This is still pretty far from the WTC area. 180 Maiden Lane is a huge building with a beautiful glassed-in lobby. The building looks like a leaded glass crystal chandelier. As I passed by, I saw dozens of what I assume were National Guardsmen, in camouflaged fatigues, sleeping on the floor of the lobby on blankets in neat rows.

At South and Broad Street I found a lot more ash on the ground, on cars & buildings, and in the air. Some streets looked like they had been hosed down, creating a thin layer of mud. The smell of smoke is back quite strongly. I continued south to State & Pearl. I was now pretty much at the extreme southern tip of Manhattan, by Battery Park, South of the World Financial Center. I started going north on Broadway, towards the WTC. Ash is everywhere and getting quite thick. The air is full of it, too.

I don't know what the building was, but the address was 26 Broadway. I mention that, as when I get a better map I'd like to see exactly where I was. I am really unfamiliar with this part of town. I continued north up the darkened block and was quickly intercepted by six armed soldiers or National Guardsmen. They were wearing camo & helmets. They said I could not continue any further north, and I had to turn back. There was nothing oppressive about them. They were quite kind and helpful in directing me back home, as I was, at this point, rather lost. You can never really get lost here, as long as you can tell north from south; but from this area I would have no idea what the shortest route home would be. Despite the atmosphere of "Martial Law", they seemed more like friends and neighbors than soldiers, and it seemed like they just wanted to help me get back home, stopping my walk for my own safety.

I went south a bit, and at the first intersection I cut across east a block or so and then started heading north again. Walking up William Street, passing Wall Street and Pine Street. Moving north, in the area directly east of the attacks. The ash was very thick. Cars were covered in a layer sometimes more than an inch thick, and the streets were muddy with it. I think there were power outages around here, and some areas were pitch black. While walking through one such block, a small spotlight was suddenly focused on me from the roof of a building behind me. It followed me for about four seconds and then it turned off. Sorta creepy. I made my way to what I think was East Broadway. This street was pretty well lit. As I continued north, I realized that with the amount of police and barricades I was now seeing that I wasn't going to really get any closer or see anything different, so I decided to start home. I didn't know how long I'd been out, but I knew it would be a long walk home, and the air was increasingly thick with ash.

I saw a large Rite Aid that was lit up, but behind a line of police. I asked if the Rite Aid was open (several of them are open 24hrs). It wasn't. I asked if they knew of anyplace close where I could get an air filter or mask, and an EMS worker who overheard came up and gave me a surgical mask. It really made breathing a lot easier on the way home, as some of the areas I walked through were heavily full of ash clouds.

I think I forgot to mention it earlier, but I do have a friend who worked in the World Trade Center. I didn't know that her office was there until after all of this happened. She was on vacation, and is now safely stranded in San Francisco! Her name is Annie, and she is safe!

While I was out walking tonight, I was taking brief and chaotically scrawled notes of where I was and what I saw as it all happened (often in near absolute darkness, hoping that my writing would be legible once I saw it in the light). What I have written above is typed from my memory of this evening and from the notes I took. Everything here is factual, but due to the nature of my note taking, some of the street names and places may be slightly off. But I am pretty certain that I got everything down accurately.

It is now after 7:00am. My pants & feet are covered with mud and ash. When I left my apartment I only intended to go around the corner and come right back, so I was wearing flip-flops, not shoes, through all of this. I have to take a shower. Then I am going to bed.
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