Princeton resident tells of trip from Manhattan.
By: Geroge Frey
Many commuters at the Princeton Junction train station found themselves stranded or routed back to their destinations this morning by the apparent terrorist attacks in Manhattan.
Many exited trains teary-eyed and somber.
An announcement on loudspeakers at the station stated all NJ Transit and Amtrak trains east and westbound in and out of Manhattan were not running, and that service was suspended in the Northeast Corridor. The announcement also said all subways, bridges, and tunnels were closed going into the city.
Alexis Michael of Princeton said she didn’t know what the situation was in New York, but that she was happy that she wasn’t in the city at the time of the accidents. She exited an NJ Transit train at Princeton Junction around 11 a.m. after having attempted to go to New York from Princeton Junction this morning.
"I was trying to get in to New York and I got stopped," Ms. Michael said. "I left at nine this morning, and then my father called me on my cellphone and told me that the north tower (of the World Trade Center) got hit. The (train) service was still running around Rahway so I stayed on at that point. A little further on they said the bridges were closed, and so I got off."
Contrary to the NJ Transit reports, some people said things were still running with some regularity in New York.
"I was in Manhattan this morning, but I work in Newark," said Cassandra Cohen of Princeton. "As I was leaving, I could see smoke billowing out of the World Trade Center."
Ms. Cohen said she had a meeting in midtown Manhattan and that she was riding a bus that was running normally, except that the bus was not permitted to proceed south of 14th Street. She said the bus driver told someone to take a subway somewhere so she said she thought they were still running.
Ms. Cohen also said when she caught her NJ Transit train at Pennsylvania Station at 10:05 a.m., all the departing trains on the information board were "on time."
"My husband works at the Custom’s House of the World Trade Center," which is one of the smaller buildings at the complex, Ms. Cohen explained. She was upbeat and confident that her husband who works as an attorney with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms in the federal building was all right.
Ms. Cohen said she and her husband traveled into New York to work for years, but that her offices had just been moved to Newark. Asked if she felt any sense of unease in going into the city, Ms. Cohen said she felt little threat, but that she had recently thought of security measures in general and how easy it is to get into certain buildings without ever being checked.
"My husband was in the basement of the World Trade Center when the last bomb went off there in 1993. He continues to work there and I think that he feels safe working there. He probably got there after this happened. I’m sure he got out," she said.
"I know that they have taken more precautions at airports, but these people got into an airport with guns. You can still hijack a plane, assuming they had guns. How can you still do that? I’m dazed," Ms. Cohen said.
Walter Gillyard, an assistant conductor with Amtrak’s Keystone service, Train 646 from Philadelphia to New York stopped in Princeton Junction at about 10:40 a.m.
"We were watching the whole situation in Philadelphia, so we knew what was going on in New York," he said.
"We will stop the train in Newark. They’re not going to let us in to New York. My shift ends when I get to New York, and I go where they tell me to go. I just want to go home to see my kids," Mr. Gillyard said."

