Thread by @markmywords_mf

@Sassychickie 1). As I reflect 20 years ago...

My story is nothing compared to the families and friends that lost loved ones or New Yorkers that were on the ground that day

My memory of that day starts back on Thursday 9/7/01.

@Sassychickie 2). I was the director for midsized retailer managing it's eCommerce channel and arrived that morning to take a tour of AT&T's hosting center in lower Manhattan. We were looking to move our physical hardware to a new Data center.

@Sassychickie 3). We started at the AT&T's corporate campus NOC (network operations center) across the river in Bedminster New Jersey. This is the location where they manage the global communications for phone and data across their network.

@Sassychickie 4). The tour started in a room looking over the whole operations room, the curtains open and you see quite a sight. The exec that was giving the tour starts off by remarking the seat I was sitting in is where AL Gore discovered the internet.

@Sassychickie 5). One of the most interesting parts were two graphs they showed us in the presentation showing network traffic. Cnn did a good story about it later pictured below. The graph shows that communications went to a stand still when the verdict of the 1995 OJ Simpson trial was...

@Sassychickie 6). announced and America was in shock as they were speaking to one another at work not on the phone... The other graph was similar reaction for network communication when the San Francisco earthquake occurred during the World Series in 89.

@Sassychickie 7). Our next stop was the Data Center on 10th Ave in Midtown Manhattan. This is where the site would be physically hosted. The thing that stuck in my mind the most was how they explained the non discript feature of the large building.

@Sassychickie 8). It was this way so it would not stand out and garner attention. Then the tour exec commented how secure and strong the building was and how it could survive a nuclear blast.

@Sassychickie 9). 3 days after that 8:46 am the first building was hit. I was back in Northeast Ohio back at work. My wife called and let me know that the tower was hit. I asked her how the weather was there and she said it was a clear day.

@Sassychickie 10). Prior to 9/11 small planes hit buildings in NYC but it was during inclement weather. I immediately suspected terrorism. While we were on the phone the second plane hit tower two. My mind raced and worried for the loss of life and the gravity of the situation of the event

@Sassychickie 11). I later came to learn that the first person to die on 9/11 was Daniel Lewin on American flight 11 out of Boston. He was the founder of Akamai technologies (Boston), the technology we leveraged for Web performance. The twitter platform leverages this technology today.

@Sassychickie 12). With his Israeli military training and understanding of Arabic he may have figured out what was going on, perhaps even tried to stop it. According to flight attendants’ calls relayed to authorities on the ground, the first passenger to be killed was seated in 9B.

@Sassychickie @threadreaderapp unroll

@Sassychickie 13). I often think back to those days of how now AT&T shows the network traffic of 9/11

God Bless all who were lost and affected that day and beyond.