9/11 Eyewitness Account

James Altucher shares his first-hand experience of being present during the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

"My business partner and I were at Dean & DeLuca on the first floor of the World Trade Center where we ate breakfast every day. We're walking to my home where I had my office, and my partner turns to me and says 'Is the president coming into town today?' because there's this plane right overhead. Then boom - we watched it go right into the building. Not on TV, but physically saw it go right into the building. Everybody on the street instinctively ducked.

Your brain does weird things. My business partner Dan said 'We're being attacked' and I'm thinking 'No, that was just an accident, no one's in the building' - even though it was quarter to 9 AM.

We run to the fire station and say we want to help. These guys throw 2 fireman suits at us and say 'Get this on, we're gonna go straight over there.' We start putting it on but then they say 'Wait a second, are you guys firemen?' We're like 'No, we just wanted to give blood or whatever we could do.' They said 'No, no, no, only firemen.'

That fire station, the Duane Street fire station - 100% of those people died who went to the World Trade Center that morning."