> One thing I thought about yesterday while watching the news is how incredibly MASSIVE the twin towers were. They were the most dramatic feature of the Manhattan skyline, and I remember walking around downtown and stopping by the towers just trying to put them in perspective.
>
> To see them crumble was dumbfounding, (partly) because of my memory of their manner of making the rest of New York look like a toy city. Those of you who have never seen the towers may not have been able to grasp their size from the news footage.
>


I'd say a building which makes a Boeing 767 look like a two-seater, and moreover is able to stand after being hit by one must be pretty huge.


> ------
>
> One of the amazing things about yesterday was the conduct of New Yorkers during the tragedy. I saw frightened people running, but there was no pandemonium.
>
> The camera showed one old man fall down and he lay on the ground crying, but two other men who were racing by stopped, picked him up, and the three stumbled away. A lot of people were helping each other in the footage, even when the buildings collapsed and the city was filled with dust and debris. Guiliani said that there had been no reports of looting.
>
> --Jezzika


I heard stories from the evacuation (I'm not sure it was of the WTC, but I think so), where people calmly waited behind old ladies and the like coming down the stairs. Some places, you can't even rely on that behaviour on a normal day.

On the other hand, I read this morning that American muslims are scared to go outside their houses. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether their fear is well-founded ...

julian