‘The Last Normal Day’
Washington, D.C.
2001
“I was in Washington, D.C., the evening before 9/11 for a private dinner with the vice president and Mrs. Cheney at their official residence. It was the last normal day any of us would have for months. Early the next morning, I was watching a news show when they interrupted the broadcast with a chilling report that a plane had apparently crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. In minutes they had a live shot up of the tower, with what looked like a silhouette of an airplane at a crazy angle in the side of the building. Moments later, at 9:03 a.m., I watched in disbelief as a second airliner crashed into the South Tower. I raced out the door to the Newsweek bureau, a block away from the White House and a good place to monitor what else might happen. It didn’t take long for the story to reach Washington. At 9:37 a.m., an airliner crashed into the Pentagon just across the Potomac River from the bureau. I had a clear view of the Defense Department from the balcony, and I shot pictures as heavy black smoke billowed out. From that vantage point I also had an unobstructed view of the U.S. Capitol, and it could easily have been the next target. As I shot photos of the Pentagon, an Air National Guard F-16 fighter jet made a low pass above the smoke, and I managed to fire off a couple of frames. It only flew by once, and to my knowledge this is the only photo of that moment. Early the next morning I accompanied Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to the Pentagon and stayed in Washington for days after that to continue covering the story for Newsweek.”

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