Sixteen years ago, I was with Fidelity Investments  - a Vice President in Internal Audit, working out of Fidelity’s New York offices at Two World Financial Center. On a typical weekday morning I’d be sitting in my 4th floor office, which looked out upon the Westside Highway and the World Trade Center. But on the day of the attack, I was out of town, in Boston, visiting Fidelity’s headquarters.

Around 9 a.m. a colleague told me that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. Like many others, I imagined that a small commuter had lost control and crashed into the building. However, upon learning of the second crash moments later, I realized the enormity of the moment.

In a dazed state of mind, I spent the next 30 minutes trying to call my wife, whom I knew would be in our apartment on the Upper Eastside of Manhattan. I finally got through, for all of 15 seconds. But that was enough time for me to hear her say: “Thank God you’re safe in Boston.” That brief call turned out to be my only connection on Tuesday with family and friends in New York City. 

I then was instructed by Hadrian Tucker, who headed the Internal Audit and Compliance Departments, that I should return to the hotel until further notice. FAT CHANCE – would you stay in a hotel was located across the street from Boston’s own World Trade Center - which was situated across the bay from Boston’s Logan Airport, from where the attacking flights originated?

Left to my own devices, I aimlessly roamed Boston. Ultimately, I hooked up with a co-worker who waited nervously for word from her boyfriend who was a trader in the World Trade Center. She finally connected with him by Wednesday, 9/12. That next day I also learned that all of Fidelity's NY-based employees had been safely evacuated from Two Financial Center and escorted up the Westside Highway away from Ground Zero.

By Thursday evening, September 13, I returned home to New York, by Amtrak train service. I had an emotional reunion with my wife, family, neighbors and a city in mourning.

For photos of that tragic day:  

• 23 Haunting Photos (Business Insider)
• World Trade Center Attack 9/11  (World Visits)