On September 11, Lynda Tollner, ’84 had a 9:30 a.m. meeting on the 72^nd floor of Tower One. In an email, she writes: “I was about 15 minutes from getting on the elevator. I was still on the concourse level when the first plane hit. There was smoke, but people were calmly walking to the exits. We didn’t know what had happened. Outside was a kind of surreal atmosphere. I saw the building on fire, big holes, and then ran for cover. When the second plane hit, I was just below and had just walked into the lobby of a building across the street from the south side of Tower Two. The noise was incredible. There was a lot of panic. I thought I was going to be buried by a falling tower. I held on to the people next to me; they were praying.”

Today, Tollner says, “you could say I’m working to help rebuild for my client, the Port Authority.” As an engineer for Maitra Associates, Tollner’s task is to design new mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection systems for the Port Authority executive offices, which replace the offices destroyed when the Towers collapsed. The new site is on Park Avenue South at 18^th Street, a couple of subway stops (and not within walking distance) of Ground Zero.

Her first visit back to the WTC area came on January 3. Not surprisingly, it looks like a giant construction zone, with the cranes, trucks, and workers. “I think I was more stunned,” she says, “at the damage to some of the surrounding buildings. The Bankers Trust Building, where I was when the second plane flew overhead into Tower Two, has extensive damage.”

Michael Bruskin, ’87, experienced 9-11 like most of the country: watching the events unfold on television. “Even in the shock of what I was witnessing, I was impressed at how well the structure took the initial impact and at how long it remained standing. As it burned, I didn’t see how the buildings could take much more, given the intensity of the fire.”

Working on an assignment as a Project Manager in Turner Construction Company’s Connecticut Business Unit, Bruskin could have left the WTC disaster as background noise on the television as he went on with his regular routine. However, when the operations manager from his unit asked if he’d be willing to be temporarily assigned to the New York office, Bruskin immediately said ‘yes.’

“Like most Americans,” he says, “I felt the desire to help in some way.”

On September 13, Bruskin was told to pack a bag and gather his company identification, hardhat, gloves, and respirator. On September 16, he was told to report to the New York office at 8 am the next morning.

Turner Construction was one of the contractors hired by New York’s Department of Design and Construction, the umbrella group responsible for the WTC clean up. The company’s recovery operations focused on WTC-7, the last building to fall on September 11. Bruskin’s duty upon reporting to New York City was to oversee, document, and coordinate a portion of the recovery operations in their sector with other constituents, including city and federal agencies and engineers.

“The pictures you saw on television did not do [the scene] justice,” Bruskin says. “You would have to climb inside the TV and turn 360 degrees and be able to smell the acrid smoke to really get a feel for what was going on. I think that four months later, I still have not fully comprehended what I saw and felt.”

That sentiment could probably be shared by Chris Cerino, ’95, who, as a project manager for DeSimone Consulting Engineers (DCE), has been at Ground Zero since September 11. He assisted the FDNY at the collapse site, evaluating the structural integrity of the intact, partially collapsed, and collapsed structures and determining the safest and fastest ways to progress toward the core area and potential survivors.

Cerino was one of the many AE alumni working in New York City who witnessed the destruction of the WTC and the heroism of the firefighters and police officers up close. Kevin Potter, ’85, ’94g, is the executive officer for Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 21, based in Lakehurst, NJ, and under his command are 5 men who are NYC police officers in their civilian lives and one NYC firefighter.

The battalion’s primary mission, Potter explains, is to provide contingency construction support to the Marine Corps, while in peacetime, the Seabees often perform community-service construction. The officers are all architects and engineers and part of the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps and are supported by a talented group of enlisted people who have a variety of construction-related backgrounds.

On September 11, the Seabees were immediately called into action, first to provide extra security on their base, and later to assist in the recovery operations. The majority of the 150 Seabees mobilized were involved with the construction support to reopen Battery Park Coast Guard Station, which housed the numerous military forces providing security and logistics support to Ground Zero.

As the world seemed to focus on the events in New York City, the Pentagon was also faced with the task of recovery and rebuilding after the terrorist attack.

The Pentagon was in the midst of a major renovation project on September 11. In fact, according to Michael Pulaski, B.A.E./ M.A.E. ’01 and current Ph.D. candidate, whose research involves the Pentagon renovation, the area of impact was one of the last to be renovated and was in the process of moving tenants into the space. Because of this, the lower floors were mostly vacant on that Tuesday while tenants occupied the majority of upper floors.

When the plane hit the building, it struck directly on the “Wedge Line,” precisely on the line separating the newly renovated area from the occupied space. The fuel exploded, and the fire spread rapidly. Like the Towers, the damaged area of the Pentagon remained intact for less than an hour after impact, allowing for the evacuation of most of the building’s occupants. This was directly a result of the renovation work, he says, as the entire outside perimeter was reinforced with steel columns to ensure blast-resistant windows.

“Amazingly,” says Pulaski, “the windows located in the renovated space, immediately adjacent to the area of impact, were still intact while those located in the un-renovated area, more than a hundred feet away, had been blown out.”

Pulaski interned with the Pentagon Renovation Program this past summer, and now as a doctoral student, his research project with the Pentagon Renovation Program introduces constructability and sustainability concepts into the design of the remaining wedges to be renovated.

“After realizing the area of the Pentagon that was hit,” Pulaski says, “my thoughts immediately went to those who I had met that were working there this summer. A month earlier, and I would have been in that same area.”

“We can all choose what we take with us from any crisis,” says Michael Bruskin. “I will take what is best – the wondrous spirit of New York and the citizens of the United States. The workers, government officials, management, and volunteers who worked together for a common goal is something I have never seen and never could have imagined.”

Kevin Potter agrees. “Patriotism and a sense of united brotherhood are back in America. I hope it is not a fad. Police officers, fire fighters, and emergency rescue workers are getting deserved recognition as heroes. This time last year, our heroes were those who ran down football fields. This year, our heroes have run into collapsing buildings.”

Heroes deserve to be remembered, as do all of those who died that day, and Potter thinks that a monument at WTC would be appropriate. Lynda Tollner also agrees that a memorial should be – must be – built, but the city needs to rebuild as well.

“I am a New Yorker,” she says. “This is my city, and the World Trade Center was my neighborhood. It was a place I had commuted in and out of, bought breakfast at, shopped in the concourse mall, ate lunch on the WTC plaza while listening to live music, and visited my clients. The area will never be the same, so there is no point in copying the original towers. We can’t bring back my neighborhood, but we can build a new one.”

Chris Cerino’s idea takes a bolder approach. “I think they should take the opportunity to build two taller towers and reestablish the United States and New York City as the home of the world’s tallest buildings. That would be the strongest statement of not only America’s resolve, but also the ability to overcome and move forward.

“But,” he adds, “I sure wouldn’t want the job of leasing the spaces!”

 

At 8:50 or so, the phone rang. I found out later that it was Chris Hewitt, one of our fifth-year students, but at the time, he yelled excitedly into the receiver, forgetting to identify himself.

“Sue!” he cried, “You have to get Professor Parfitt to turn on CNN. A plane hit the World Trade Center. This would be something for his building failures class to see!”

No sooner did I hang up the phone, Kevin Parfitt burst through the door, racing toward the conference room where we have a television set. “A plane hit the Trade Center,” he said breathlessly. Upon hearing the news, he had run to the AE office. “Les Robertson just gave a speech in Frankfort, Germany, saying the towers could withstand a plane crash. This is amazing.”

We were able to pull in one station on the conference room TV – Channel 16 from Wilkes-Barre Scranton, an ABC affiliate. There we stood – the office staff, various members of the faculty, a few grad students – watching the fire in Tower One as a plane began to approach. Someone thought that it was a replay of the original hit, an idea in which, in our numbness, we all agreed, until someone shouted, “It’s a different plane! It hit Tower Two!”

Dumbfounded, I stumbled back to my desk to call my husband. No sooner did I pick up the phone when Curtis Chan, the College of Engineering public relations person, stormed into the office, pad and pen in hand, wanting to interview anybody on the structures faculty. Fifteen minutes later, he was gone, back to Hammond Building, prepared for the media calls.

I wish he would have warned us about what was to come.

As Peter Jennings told the television audience that a plane crashed in Washington, the office phone rang. A reporter from abcnews.com – could she speak to Richard Behr? Before I could connect the call through, another line rang. The local news, wanting to speak to Kevin Parfitt. Reporters from Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal called. TV and radio stations from the west coast wanted to do phone interviews. All of the media wanted to know the same thing: Why did the buildings collapse?

Our usual quiet office was a beehive of activity that day. The phone rang non-stop, often two or three lines at a time, and we depleted quite a supply of message pads. Kevin Parfitt drained a few cell-phone batteries. The structural engineering faculty was in demand locally, nationally, and internationally to give expert feedback, trying to give a definition to something we may never really understand. Curtis Chan and Penn State Information had been quick on the response, realizing that Penn State, with its strong AE program, would be a fountain of information. A list of AE faculty was released to the newswires, including a listserv that provides expert information sent to media worldwide. That list was sent to me, via a writing friend; the AE names were at the top of the list. No wonder our phones were so crazy.

When the phone wasn’t ringing, we would wander into the conference room to watch the news coverage. The University did not close, as did many businesses and other schools around the state, but the faculty had the option to cancel classes. Many of our faculty did just that. They, like all of us, were shell-shocked and worried about friends and former students in New York and Washington. (A result of that concern was Lou Geschwindner’s website at http://www.engr.psu.edu/ae/WTC/WTCTragedy.html)