Associated Press journalists who witnessed Sept. 11 remember what they saw, 25 years later

On September 11, 2001, Associated Press journalist Karen Matthews was preparing her 3-year-old daughter for preschool in Manhattan when a loud boom caught her attention. She quickly went outside to witness the devastation. People around her were also looking up at the damaged World Trade Center north tower, smoke billowing from the building just a few blocks away.

People began asking each other what they had seen. Matthews started asking the same question, trying to document the events with her notebook and daughter in tow.

Upon leaving her apartment, Matthews encountered a woman with tears streaming down her face, assuming an accident had struck the tower. Then, she saw a massive fireball erupt from the south tower as a second hijacked jet struck. Her young daughter began crying, "I want to go to school, I want to go to school." It was then that Matthews and others realized they were under attack.

Her daughter's daycare was not far from the scene, and as Matthews made her way there, she witnessed teachers grabbing children and running north, many of them crying. She took her daughter up, intending to keep them safe and turned on Barney to help calm her. In the aftermath, nearly 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the four planes hijacked by al-Qaida militants.

Twenty-five years later, Matthews, now retired, still divides her life into the time before and after September 11. She expressed that while she is not typically a fearful person, she acknowledges that the attack shattered a sense of security.

Meanwhile, Richard Drew, another AP journalist, had planned to cover Fashion Week when he arrived at Chambers Street and saw the burning twin towers. His assignment was immediately changed, and he began taking pictures of the disaster. One of Drew's images, known as "The Falling Man," shows a man falling headfirst from the tower, perfectly aligned with the vertical lines of the building.

The photograph was published in some newspapers but rejected by others, fearing it would be too upsetting. Drew still reflects on the image at least once a week.

For AP reporter Larry Neumeister, the day started as he made his way to a hospital near Ground Zero. Dust from the pulverized towers fell like a snowstorm. When he reached the hospital, doctors and nurses were gathering outside, preparing for a constant stream of injured survivors. Neumeister walked by the World Trade Center site the night after the attacks and was told by a doctor that he had either walked or run away from the site when the buildings fell, or he was gone. No one was in between.