by Nancy Leport,
PHHS Secretary
Blue skies. Bill Golden described that as his first impression of Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. His second impression was how quickly the day’s beauty changed to horror and disbelief.
Bill, a former Hilton resident and member of the Class of 1985, worked in Tower 7 of the World Trade Center. He spoke before an audience of approximately 130 people in the Quest Auditorium to kick off the 2024-25 season of Parma Hilton Historical Society (PHHS) Second Monday programs in cooperation with the Hilton Alumni Association.
His talk was titled “A 9/11 Story,” and he shared the terrible, the traumatic, and the humanitarian actions of that fateful day. As he showed attendees in his slide presentation, Tower 7 was directly behind Tower 1, the first Tower hit. With his back to his windows, he was finishing an email when the loudest rumble of thunder he had ever heard hit his ears. But, he said, as he turned around, the sky was still blue. He got up and looked down onto the Trade Center Plaza but saw no cars or things that might have caused the noise. Then, he looked up and saw a hole in Tower 1. His mind began to sort through what he saw, and he concluded a generator had blown up.
As people began milling in the hallway outside his office, he joined them, and that was when one of his coworkers ran down the hall. Soon, they began to follow, and they congregated at the elevator. Bill was on the 38th floor of Tower 7, which, in comparison to Tower 1, was about half its height. It occurred to Bill that taking the elevator might not be a good idea, although he can’t say why he felt that way.
When they reached the lobby, they weren’t allowed to leave the front entrance because debris and “other things” (which he later realized were bodies) were falling. As the concierge sent them through a garage to the back alley, he found himself outside when the second plane hit Tower 2. He didn’t want to turn around and look, but he saw the landing gear flying in the air.
Thus began a long run/walk north to Upper Manhattan, where his business had another office. At this point, they still didn’t know what had happened. Along the way, they began to pick up bits and pieces. They looked to see if Tower 1 had actually collapsed and saw the moment that Tower 2 started to pancake. Thinking 25,000 people worked in each of those two towers, he felt like he had just watched 50,000 people die.
No phones were working, so he could not let his family know he was safe. He humorously added that he wondered if he was still in New York City because all the shopkeepers along the way were so kind and helpful in providing water and even food. However, he is forever grateful for their kindness and compassion at such a difficult and unsettling time.
He watched a FedEx truck speed by going the wrong way on the street and saw firefighters in the back getting into their gear to fight the fires that were burning at the Trade Center. Contrasting his moving away from the disaster and their moving toward it, he said first responders are a different breed of folk from him and his respect for them has only grown since that day.
Getting home to New Jersey was a challenge, but he was sent to Chelsea Piers, where he took a river cruise boat out of Manhattan. By 5:30 p.m., he was able to get a bus to his car and finally got home to his wife and two boys. It was then that he heard Tower 7 had fallen as well. At that moment, the full extent of that day overwhelmed him.
Bill graciously answered questions, which gave attendees more insight into that day. By sharing his experiences of 9/11, the story will stay alive in the hearts and minds of those who heard it so they never forget the bravery and sacrifice of so many that day.
For more information on the PHHS, go to http://www.parmahiltonhistoricalsociety.com.
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