The Sonic Memorial Project

Chris worked as a guard at the WTC in the late 1970s and had several amorous encounters in the stairwell, especially on the 78th floor. He got caught, though. After that, he was assigned to work in the sub-basement, eight floors belowground.

Helen Engelhart had her 60th birthday party at Windows on the World. She has a tape recording of the party and pictures of the party's organizer, Jackie Sayegh Duggan, who died on 9/11.

By chance, WTC electrician Harold Maguire left the building 20 minutes before the first plane hit. He describes how strange it felt to have people calling to see if he was alive.

Susannah Kelly lives in California now, but she grew up in Manhattan at Westbeth, the artists' community on West Street looking south. On a visit home after 9/11, she taped conversations with mother, brother, and people on the street about their…

Benjamin and Michelle Barshay got married at Windows on the World in 1985, and they live and work in the area. They considered the WTC to be their backyard. They have video of the scene outside their windows on 9/11.

In 1996 artist Carl Scorza helped establish the World Views artists in residence program at the WTC. He was in the first group of artists to be given studio space in the towers--his was on the 86th floor. He talks about being a part of the program…

Indiana resident Chris Countryman feels it is important for the archive to include the sounds of the towers collapsing.

Brian Parsons remembers catching sight of the WTC from the windows of airplanes. The sound he associates with the tower is the strange white noise of the airplane.

Ashley visited New York from the Berkshires when she was seven. Of her visit to the WTC, she remembers that she didn't trust the man-made mountains but that standing on the observation deck, with its silence and the wind, was like being on a…

An anonymous man calls to say he is sorry he never visited the towers and describes their beauty.

Erwin Fry worked in 2 WTC for many years and remembers the building creaking on windy days.

Jackie Murray says her sound is no sound, the defining silence.

Scott Friedman commutes to his job in NYC from Stamford, Connecticut. He calls from his car to describe the morning of September 11. He remembers the sound of his car and the traffic jam he sat in while watching the towers fall.

Boston resident Genevieve Carroll remembers the sounds of the WTC elevators and anxiety she could hear in the voices of people from different countries as the elevators went up.

Donna Demming, who escaped from 1 World Financial Center on 9/11, says people thought at first that a helicopter had hit the tower. She took a ferry bound for Hoboken, then got on a train. As she was leaving, she saw the towers fall.

Becky Valdez's husband commuted to the WTC from upstate New York. He was there on the morning of September 11 but made it out alive. Their memory of the building is the sound of footsteps echoing in the lobby.

Jeff Cashdollar recorded Glenn Branca performing with a 100-guitar ensemble at the WTC plaza three weeks before September 11.

Poet Jude Rittenhouse reads a piece by Longfellow and her own poem, Letter from Planet Earth, September 2001

David Johnson plays a song he wrote after 9/11.

Florida resident Larry Clement worked in theater in the mid-1980s. He remembers the WTC fondly, especially the Theatre Development Fund's TKTS booth at 2 WTC. It was always empty--his particular secret.