NEW YORK CITY (Gray DC) – It has been 25 years since the September 11th attacks killed nearly 3,000 people. While people around the world watched the attacks unfold on television, millions witnessed them firsthand in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Washington Correspondent Stetson Miller was one of the New Yorkers who witnessed the attacks as a child. He shared his story from Pier 40 in New York’s West Village.
Miller was seven years old and living in the West Village, not far from Pier 40. He saw part of the attacks unfold from the pier, about a mile and a half north of where the World Trade Center once stood.
Miller said he did not entirely understand what was happening at the time. Earlier in the day, he discussed it with classmates in his second-grade classroom, where his teacher asked each student what they thought was going on.
Miller’s mother walked dozens of blocks across town to pick him and his brother up and pull them out of school. The family went home for a few hours, watched the news and received calls from worried family members who lived outside the city.
In the afternoon, Miller’s family walked to the pier, where they saw rescue workers covered in dust, police officers and large plumes of smoke. Miller said the smoke in the direction of the World Trade Center stood out to him.
Miller said it took time for him to understand what happened, but his teachers and family helped him process it. For years afterward, he discussed the attacks and the wars that followed in school.
A few later, Miller had a view of Ground Zero from his middle school in Battery Park, the neighborhood next to where the World Trade Center once stood.
Miller said the experience changed his life and contributed to his interest in news and his decision to become a reporter.
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