The sky was clear and there was a nip in the air as people on Roosevelt Island walked to the subway or Tram stops around 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday on the way to work, to school or to attend to chores in the City.  Some stopped to watch a cylindrical stream of dark gray smoke, dense and thick, billowing out of the South tower of the World Trade Center as it towered behind the Queensboro Bridge.

Along the East River, groups of residents gathered to see what looked like huge clouds of smoke rising up and blowing toward Brooklyn.  Doctors, nurses, and patients from Coler-Goldwater Memorial Hospital stood along Cherry Tree Drive, wondering what was going on.  At first, all they knew was that a plane had crashed into one of the Towers.  Fire was visible halfway up the South Tower of the Twin Towers.

The sound of wailing sirens filled the air as rows of fire trucks and ambulances rushed south toward downtown Manhattan on FDR drive.  Strangely enough, the azure sky was silent.  The usual drone of airplanes and the sputtering sound of helicopters was missing.  The sky looked blank, as if something was not right.

More residents spilled out into the street along the East river, cameras in hand.  They took pictures, not knowing what would happen next.  News was trickling out as more residents came out after watching television news.

On the street, people switched on their car radios to hear what was going on.  Several offered their cell-phones to residents who wanted to call family and friends in the downtown area but it was virtually impossible to get through.

There was a collective gasp as the first Tower collapsed.  The smoke looked ominous.  The gray columns mixed with puffs of thick, white smoke that the building seemed to cough up.  Shocked onlookers witnessed the collapse of the second tower.  "Oh my God," said Mullika Shrivastava, who had brought her grandson out in a stroller.  "This is unbelievable."  All those around her shook their heads in disbelief.  Some cried softly.

All of it was happening very quickly – too fast to be absorbed and understood just then.

Hordes of people went to the supermarket to stock up on food and water.  "It was like war had been declared," said Meg van Dijk, a Manhattan Park resident who bought cans of soup for the family and diapers for her daughter, Emma.  "No one knows if supplies will come in the next few days," she said.

At about noon, streams of people began arriving on the Island, crossing over the 36th Avenue Bridge.  Most had walked miles to get home.  Subway and Tram services were suspended.

Ken Barry works in Citigroup, the global commercial bank.  One of the bank's offices is located close to the West Side Highway, a couple of blocks away from the World Trade Center.  "I saw the second plane hit the second tower," said Barry, who walked for five hours to reach Roosevelt Island, where his girlfriend lives.  "It was horrible and very upsetting.  I watched people jump out of the buildings.  When the second tower collapsed, panic set in.  We were asked to evacuate immediately."  Barry's colleague, Mircea Nicalescu, a resident of Island House, also saw the second plane going into the second tower.  "There was panic and we just walked out of the building as soon as we could," said Nicalescu, his white shirt, black trousers and black shoes covered in dust.

Another resident of Island House, Jonathan Man, saw the explosion from his 10th floor office on Houston Street.  "It was just horrible," said Man, a heavy-set tall gentleman who had lugged his laptop and office bag all the way down.  Having walked for over five hours to get to the Island, Man said he did not understand why the Tram was closed but that "walking is a very small hardship compared to what some of the people had been through."

For seven-year-old Alisa and her ten-year old sister Angelica Boyle, it was certainly not easy walking over four hours from 23rd Street in Manhattan where their school, the United Nations International School, is located.  By sheer chance, their mother, Song Sri, had remained in the neighborhood after dropping the girls at school and was able to pick them up.  They met up with the girls' father, Tim Boyle, who works at the United Nations Development Program.  "I grew up in England in the 1970s when the IRA terrorist attacks were at their peak, so I know there is not much you can do to protect yourself from terrorism," said Boyle.

Annabel Gat, a student at St. Jean Baptiste School on 75th Street and Lexington Avenue, was asked to leave the school along with her classmates.  "The teachers told us what the safe routes were and we set out right after the second period."  Gat said she walked for over two hours to get home.  "Scores of people were walking so I did not feel scared."

"It seemed as if all of New York was walking," said an exhausted Natasa Bosnjakovic.  She had trudged slowly from her office in Chelsea Piers on the West side to the East side before walking uptown to reach the Island.  For her, it was a four-hour journey.

Employees of the United Nations were asked to wait outside the building as soon as officials got news of the attack.  Nicola Koch works at the Department of Peacekeeping.  "We were made to wait in the plaza and, after a short while, to leave.  We tried to figure out if we could do something to help but we were told to go home."

People like Dr. Manlan Narcisse, a member of the Advisory Committee of Administration and Budget Question of the U.N., who had arrived there well before 9:00, watched television inside as soon as news of the attack filtered in.  "We realized the day was over as far as work was concerned so we walked home."

Luckily for Eliza Kimball, another U.N. employee who lives on the Island, a friend was to have flown in from Rome later that afternoon, so she drove into town and parked her car in a garage on 38th Street.  When she was not allowed to enter the U.N., she drove out to pick up her son from his school on 62nd Street and then drove back to the Island before vehicular traffic was stopped on the Queensboro Bridge.  She said she saw a lady having trouble walking so she gave her a lift to Jackson Heights, first.  "I guess my friend from Rome will not be arriving, after all," said Kimball.

Several residents never reached work at all, having been stopped en route.  Joyce Mincheff was stuck in a subway close to the World Trade Center where she works.  "We sat in the train for over an hour.  Then the conductor announced that, due to police action, we were not going to be let off the train.  He told us to get home as soon as we were able.  We were let off in midtown Manhattan."  Mincheff told a friend that as fighter planes roared over the Queensboro Bridge packed with people fleeing the City, the hikers broke into cheers.

Others, like Georganna Galateau of Rivercross, had not left home at the time of the attack.  Her brother called from Connecticut to warn her not to step out.  "I did go to buy groceries but I could not use my credit card because the machines were not working.  The phone lines were down."

Horrified by the events of the morning, she said, "It does not seem to fit.  It is such a beautiful day."