[2/2] I was on a New Jersey Transit train to Penn Station on my way to work at the New York Academy of Science in Midtown Manhattan when the first plane hit. I still remember the train conductor announcing, rather casually, something like (not an exact quote): “Folks, if you look to your right, you will see the World Trade Center on fire.” It must have been between 8:50 and 8:55 am. A deep, loud sigh came from our compartment as everyone turned to the right. From our vantage point, the towers looked like two cigarettes, with a small trail of black smoke coming from one, the North Tower. I remember everyone who had the option getting on their cell phones and calling someone. My initial thought was that it was probably a small plane that had crashed. I was recalling an incident just a couple of weeks earlier when a French stuntman had an accidental run-in with the Statue of Liberty’s torch while paragliding. When I reached Penn Station, the TV monitors were showing EMS personnel rushing to the Tower, which still looked like a localized incident. When I walked to take the R-train uptown, I considered taking it in the other direction to snap a few photos before going to work. When I reached the subway, I heard the announcement that trains were not running south of Canal Street. I decided I wasn’t going to walk all that way from Canal St to the WTC, so I headed to work. It was at the reception desk that I learned a second plane had hit and that this was no publicity stunt going sideways.