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Living only 60 miles north of the city, my father made his daily commute via train every day for decades.
During summer breaks from school, I often had the opportunity to go to work with him.
We took the Northeast Corridor to Hoboken, NJ, where we caught the PATH to the World Trade Center.
They had these huge escalators of bustling people coming to and fro. I had always wanted to slide down the rail or see if I could beat the escalator by running in the opposite direction.
I could never quite fathom how big the place was! I mean it had trains pulling into the basement of it. Lots of them!
But one of the most amazing things was the ability to stand in one spot - even just for 20 minutes - and gaze upon the world. There were all ages, color, and countries represented; homeless to rich people; musicians and street artists to CEOs. We all shared this space in cohesion of mass transit peacefully.
I always felt safe there because of it's sheer magnitude -- and the fact that I was hanging out with my favorite person in the world - my dad but...
...I had a young girl's fear
I remember my first visit into the city. Craning my head back, I looked straight up and still couldn't see the top of the World Trade Center. What I did see struck fear into my heart a little bit.
The towers were weaving in the wind. At first I thought it was my imagination and well, I kind of felt vertigo looking up and watching them sway.
"Dad! It looks like the buildings are moving!"
"Yup. I suppose they are."
Looking around, no one seemed panicked by that fact, but I still felt uneasy. "If there was ever a hurricane, do you think they would tip over?"
He was very confident in his answer. "Nope. That's American steel. They'll never come down."
"But what if they did? How many buildings would it crush?"
He had a stumped look on his face and shrugged his shoulders. "A whole hell of a lot, kiddo, but you don't have to worry about that."
From the Observation Deck
I remember waiting in line for the elevator to take us to the Observation Deck on the 110th floor. I was excited to go to the top and not at all excited to ride an elevator that would take forever. At the time, my only experience with an elevator was in a hospital and we stopped on every floor. I thought we'd be crammed in like sardines for a really long time.
It turned out to be an express elevator so it was surprisingly a lot shorter ride than 'forever'.
Stepping out into a sort of lobby with windows as walls, I was fascinated with the view: nothing but sky.
Honestly, for a summer day, it was quite chilly up there! The wind whipped a little and once in a while my stomach did a little flip-flop as the building rocked like a big boat.
There was kind of a buffer area where no one was allowed to go (probably to prevent jumpers). There was quite a lot of buffer zone so it's not like you could lean over the railing and see straight down.
But peering over as much as I dared from my tippy-toes, the vehicles on ground level looked like ants. And I laughed with joy when I saw birds flying below me.
And then I had a strange thought. "Hey dad, what would happen if someone tossed a penny over the side?"
He kind of gave me a warning look with his bright blue eyes like: Don't you dare. "You'd kill someone."
"Do you think it would cut through a bus?"
"Definitely."
"Would it cut through the sidewalk?"
"Probably."
"Would it go all the way down to the subway?"
Dad had a whole arsenal of ways to divert my attention because I was always asking strange questions like that. "Are you hungry?"
"YEAH!"
Penny forgotten...
...until now
And I had to say it but - DAD WAS WRONG?!?
Out of curiosity, I searched the terminal velocity of a penny and you could, in fact, have survived the tossed penny of a curious child had she tossed it off the Observation Deck.
According to LiveScience.com, a penny can only really travel between 30 to 50 mph. It reaches top speed after about 50 feet and will fall steadily at that rate.
The faster the penny falls, the greater the air resistance against it. The drag force becomes equal and opposite to gravitational force thus maintaining consistent speed.
So, if you think about it, a descending penny might sting a bit, but it's unlikely to kill you.
In Memory
I still can't believe 15 years have passed since the Twin Towers collapsed. I've written about 9-11-2001 on my personal blog last year, but I wanted to share two good memories with you: The Twin Towers and my dad - all of them since gone.
This is the monument of the Washingtonville (NY) 5; five firefighters from our small community who died that day.
To read about my personal experience with the day, visit::
My September 11th Story: The News - Where's Dad? - A Grieving Community
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Meredith Loughran blogs at ScribblingBandits.com | Follow her on Twitter & SnapChat or LinkedIn