In a first-person piece marking the 25th anniversary of 11 September 2001, Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan recounts watching the terrorist attacks unfold from her Brooklyn apartment, which had an unobstructed view across the East River to the Twin Towers. She reflects on the reluctance many New Yorkers feel discussing that day, given the scale of loss suffered by others, particularly first responders who worked at Ground Zero and later succumbed to cancer and respiratory illness, but says she is sharing her account for the historical record.

Callahan describes being warned by her brother Bill by phone that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, initially dismissing fears of terrorism before watching the second plane strike the South Tower from her window. She recalls the city shutting down its bridges, subways, tunnels and airspace, growing fears that further attacks might follow at the Pentagon, in Pennsylvania and possibly Los Angeles, and her brother later driving at high speed to get her out of the city that evening.