Empire State Building

Uh, it took a couple minutes, uh, to be honest.

Um, she said, you know, she said the second w- the first time she said it, I was thinking, you know, in the 1940s, a bomber hit the Empire State Building navigating poorly.

Uh, you know, there are small planes and helicopters that fly tours around Lower Manhattan at times.

Um, so my first impression was maybe a small plane or something.

And all you could see is the smoke.

So because, you know, it was a clear day and you know how like from Northern Boulevard, from certain angles, you could see the Empire State Building, you can see parts of the city, right? So all you see is just like the plume of smoke and we're stuck in traffic.

And then it was...

Just making, and no cell phones.

Sure.

I remember going to the bus stop in the morning and someone said that a plane flew into the Empire State Building.

And that was what I heard.

I'm like, oh, that's like what a what a terrible accident.

They put it on the TV and let the fourth graders watch it.

But the third graders and everyone younger did not see anything.

and so um we went we like it was a normal school day we got home and then when i got home my parents were like why don't just go in the basement and do some homework and i didn't really know why and then eventually i turned the tv on my mom came and explained like what happened to me and then or what happened yeah what happened and then we watched it on tv and then i you know very quickly understood okay that wasn't the empire state building i never heard of the world trade centers until that day um And then you knew exactly what had happened.

And I think as kids, that's the one that I'm going to remember.

That happened during World War II.

They hit the Empire State Building, didn't they?

Yeah.

It didn't blow up.

Oh.

Our tower was on top of the Empire State Building, a pricey, uh, location which would cost us dearly, but it gave us the opportunity to continue to broadcast along with Amy, who was at another location, a little firehouse in lower Manhattan.

I have had just recently Brian Deshazer, who is the archivist for Pacifica, located hours after hours of the air checks from that day.

Oh.

In a big meeting at 8.30 in the morning, 8.45, someone hands me a piece of paper, and I go, oh, my goodness, a plane hit in.

If you live in New York, you know the story of a bomber in 1940-something hit an Empire State Building.

I said, God, it's such a clear day.

You know, something kept on, and then, of course, the second one happens, and then it was kind of... stunned, and then, you know, your sense of crisis management took over and, you know, you did stuff.

And he made them strong enough to withstand a plane crash.

The reason he did that is a plane had once hit the Empire State Building in the 40s.

So he made sure these towers could withstand a plane crash.

But it was 1965.

And you remember the days after 9-11, actually the weeks and the months after 9-11, you were afraid to come into Manhattan.

You're afraid to walk by any landmark.

It was the Empire State Building.

Everything could have been a target.

A little bit of effort to pull us all into a unity.

When Dolly Parton passed away that night, the Empire State Building lit up pink at 925 at night.

Now, come on.

Somebody, I was like, somebody in New York understands this, gets this, and has a sense of humor.

We said, oh, look, he just made a hole in the tower.

My first thought was, in 1945, a poor bomber, a U.S. bomber, I think it was a B-52, Hit the Empire State Building.

Yeah, by accident.

Because there were fog.