Twenty-three years ago this month, jazz vocalist Steve Cromity was a Contract Compliance Manager in the Engineering Department with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on the 73rd floor of No. 1 World Trade Center.

The morning of September 11 was bright and sunny as Cromity arrived unusually early to his north tower office and met with his immediate supervisor, the deputy manager. Cromity spoke of the breathtaking views of the river from the 73rd floor on this fateful day.

“It was a beautiful day.  You know we had those great views of everything where we were, and suddenly this major crash occurs.  I don’t know how to describe it.  As a matter of fact it was so tumultuous, I immediately saw fire and debris…where we were, and as you probably know the upper 90s floor took the greatest impact of those planes into the building," Cromity said.

"So you know, my boss gets up – doesn’t say a word to me and goes out the door.  When I saw that I knew what time it was.  Seeing the expression on his face – remember he’s a deputy engineer of this department.  Seeing a reaction like that, my reaction is not going to be too much different.  After the boss left the office, chaos follows,” he continued. 

Cromity went on to explain that he didn’t realize at that point the full scope of what had just happened even when a mass of people headed toward the stairwell to evacuate the building. Many of these people were there in 1993 when the Trade Center experienced the first attack.  So they knew what to do.  We were very orderly but one woman panicked, but she was not allowed to infect them with this kind of behavior.

In the down stairwell, the staff was greeted by an entourage of firefighters in full gear anxiously heading in the opposite direction. 

Cromity said they cheered the firemen on as they ascended the stairs with shouts of encouragement.

“The look on the faces of the firefighters was very dismal and intense,” he said, 

He couldn’t remember what floor they were on when they encountered the firefighters – “It could have been in the 50s or 60s.  They had responded immediately to the call.   Many firemen did not survive this disaster”, Cromity said.  Actually, 343 firefighters died in this disaster.

“No announcement was made in my building at all saying that we were under attack” Cromity said.

This is contrary to what happened in Tower Two.   Cromity could not comment on why workers in Tower Two were told to go back to work and that everything was ok.

“If we were hit first, why instruct the people to go back to work” Cromity pondered.  

When he finally made it to the ground floor, and after going through the revolving doors, we saw all this water on the floor.

“What the hell is going on?” Cromity thought to himself. "I’m picking up my pants so that water doesn’t get on them not knowing my life was in danger – people are jumping out the windows and getting burned up and all that stuff.  So this young man, I think he might have been an East Indian brother, very politely said to me, ‘Sir, would you move.' He had a much greater understanding of the seriousness of the situation.  Now that I look back at it, I have to laugh at this episode."

Cromity also recalled three occasions when he stopped to help other people.  He said one was an overweight sister who had a problem walking down the steps at first. Cromity said a Latino brother was helping her.  He offered to help them since he knew them casually. Then the Latino brother said: "No, I got it."  So I kept going. 

The next occasion was when Cromity got down the stairs.  He saw two high-ranking managers – both Black– who he offered to help.  They both said they were ok.  Afterwards, Cromity ran into someone he knew as a kid who was a court officer at that time. They all urged Cromity not to linger and get away from the building. So he followed their instructions and walked to Church Street. 

"I turned around and looked up at the building.  Both of these freaking buildings were on fire at the top.  I thought ‘This is going to take forever to fix.’  I had no notion that they would implode.  I’m walking on Dey Street towards Broadway and Tower 2 starts to collapse.  We’re thinking this building is going to fall on its side.  Fortunately, it imploded, and when this happens, all the toxic materials were totally encased with all this stuff; you can’t avoid it – it overtakes you," Cromity remembered.

"I got to the Brooklyn Bridge and started to walk across. I encouraged drivers to stop and help me and the two people who were with me at that time.  So we got into a car and were driven across the Brooklyn Bridge. We started talking about this crazy thing that had just occurred," he continued.

" I asked the driver if she can ‘take me home’. I lived in Far Rockaway and she said “ok” it was on her way.  So I was taken home and it was so early – like maybe 11 am. She let me out in my driveway and I still had all this debris over me and I see my wife and immediately start to cry.  I’m not a crier, but I wasn’t crying for myself, I was thinking of all those lives lost," Cromity said. 

This is a day Steve Cromity would like to forget, but cannot. We remember the sacrifices of all the first responders on 9/11 and anyone who helped their fellow New Yorkers during that horrific time. 

Carolyn Jenkins contributed to this article.