awn drew pink edges on the twin towers of the World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. But as the sun rose higher, two jet planes were headed toward Lower Manhattan, determined to make it the last day for thousands.

For those who could only watch, those who survived and those who tried to pull life from the ruins, some memories of the day have turned to blurs while others are icy- sharp images. What follows is a collection of raw memories, gathered while the debris still swirled.    ANNE CRONIN
 
Before the Crash

NATALIA LESZ, a 21-year-old student staying in a hotel in Union Square while her apartment was being renovated, was on the phone with her mother in Warsaw.

"I called my mom at 9 a.m. and was talking about a guy I met. I speak to my mother every morning. Then my dog, Izzy, a Maltese, raised his head. I heard the plane on the seventh floor of the W Hotel."

"I told her, `I think a plane is next to my window.' "

 
The First Plane Hits

GREGORY DOWNER was walking his dog at Fifth Avenue and 11th Street.

"There were 12 people. We all looked up. We all thought it would be unusual for a plane to be flying so low over the city.

"It scooped down even lower over the South Village — almost like a missile — and then toward the north tower of the World Trade Center. When it went into the building we all screamed — we couldn't believe what we saw."

 
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, managing director of the Economic Cycle Research Institute, was at a meeting at 1 World Trade Center.

"The breakfast started at 8 and at about 8:50, Robert Scott, who is Morgan Stanley's president, was speaking. Then there is this thud and you could see everyone's face just widen up."

 
LYNN SIMPSON, communications director of Strategic Communications Group, was on the 89th floor of 1 World Trade Center.

"I heard an enormous crash. The ceiling fell in, the lights went out and the sprinklers went on. There was a fire in the stairwell. I told everyone to get out.

"We went into a side office and we were listening to the radio — some talk show — and the D.J.'s were joking, saying a kamikaze pilot has crashed into the World Trade Center and they were laughing. We thought we were going to die."

 
LEONORE McKEAN, a paralegal at Merrill Lynch, was working at 222 Broadway, near Nassau Street, when her building shook and she heard a terrible crash.

"We saw people jumping from high windows at the World Trade Center. It was so crushing. I suppose if you had to choose between burning to death and falling unconscious, which would you choose?"

 
EDGARDO VILLEGAS hurried down 32 flights of steps in 2 World Trade Center and arrived outside to the view of people in midair.

"They looked like rag dolls being tossed. Their bodies were lifeless; just twirling in the air, dressed in suits."

 
Between the Crashes

SHARNISE WINGATE, 25, a service technician for Verizon, was making a repair call in Brooklyn Heights when a friend called her to tell her that one of the towers had been hit.

"I was watching the flames and saw a second aircraft come in low and make a sharp left into the second tower. I was confused. It didn't look like a rescue aircraft."

 
SHARELLE HICKS, 32, was in Brooklyn Heights watching NY1 and saw the explosion. She rushed out to the Brooklyn Promenade.

"I looked to my left toward the Statue of Liberty and there was a passenger plane. I could see it coming. I couldn't understand why it was so low. The right wing went down. The plane went down and straight into the south tower. It was very deliberate."

"It was strange that on the Heights you couldn't hear it. You could just see it."

 
LISLE TAYLOR was on her way to work at Goldman Sachs.

"I got out of the subway and there were hundreds of pieces of paper in the air. I thought it was a marketing campaign. Then I heard a boom."

 
The Second Plane Hits

GEORGE C. SHEA, 37, was driving north, just out of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, when a blue-gray sport utility vehicle in front of him was hit by an enormous wheel that he believes was from a plane.

"I'm guessing 8 or 10 feet in diameter, in a rain of debris, with a strut, prop, metal attached to it."

 
JOHN BOGGIO, a phone clerk from BRG Brokerage, stood staring at the gray smoke belching from the holes in the towers and knew that his girlfriend, Jody Nicolos, who worked on the 105th floor, was dead.

"I can't even think. She's got a 13-year-old daughter. I don't know what I'm going to tell her daughter. I don't know what I'm going to tell my son."

 
One Tower Collapses

JIM ZAMPARELLI, 54, was standing near Stuyvesant High School.

"This is the most horrifying thing I've ever experienced. Look — oh my God, look — there's a person falling. I can't watch. Don't watch."

"Oh my God, as we're talking that whole tower is falling. Run!"

 
DAVID ROHDE, a reporter for The New York Times, was outside the World Trade Center when the collapse started.

"First, a sharp crack and then what sounded, oddly, like a waterfall, thousands of panes of glass shattering as the north side of the tower buckled. Then a slow, building rumble like rolling thunder that will not stop as the tower cascades toward the ground. And finally the silence of dozens of people running for their lives focused on nothing but themselves and survival as the thick brown cloud of debris surges down the street."

 
WARREN ST. JOHN, a writer who lives on Sullivan Street, ran down to the street after the first plane hit and saw the chain reaction of destruction.

"We could see the northeast corner of the building, and that it had kind of buckled. There was this long line of fire moving lower and lower through the building, and everyone was saying, `Look at that metal, look at that metal, it's going to buckle, it's going to come down,' and then there was an unreal, a thunderous roar, and we saw the top of it disappearing into the building. Everyone just stood there, in shock. And then the entire crowd started to cry, to sob."

 
KEITH VANCE, 33, had been standing on Broadway in front of Trinity Church when he saw the tower collapse.

"I was surprised how long it lasted. It was probably only 30 seconds, but it felt like five minutes."

 
The Second Collapse

LOUIS CENTENO, an employee at St. Vincent's Manhattan Hospital, was out on the street trying to get people to donate blood when the second tower collapsed.

"You know how dominoes go down? That's how this went. One by one. Each floor. Real fast, in about 10 seconds."

 
JOE DISORDO was describing his escape from the 72nd floor of 2 World Trade Center when he suddenly realized that he was staring into vacant space.

"Where is the building? Did it fall down? Where is it?"

 
SADIYA CARONE watched from the corner of Eighth Avenue and 25th Street.

"The building looked like a cigarette. Big horizontal black smoke near a bottom of `ash.' Then jet-black smoke shot out, like a Saturn-like ring. Then the building just sank, just sat down."

 
DAVID STROUT, who lives across from the trade center at 110 Liberty Street, went outside after the first tower collapsed. He then ran back into his apartment.

"I grabbed some towels from the linen closet and wet them and ran outside — this is a minute after the first one collapsed. It was like being in a blizzard, like a crazy rendering of the apocalypse. I didn't know where I was going at first; you couldn't see street signs. I started running toward a friend's house and there was soot everywhere. I started throwing towels to as many people as I could."

 
Fleeing the Scene

MIKE DIAZ PIEDRA'S leg was broken when he was trampled in the garage of 75 Park Place after the first plane hit:

"All of a sudden, people went crazy. And then a man built like a refrigerator ran over me."
 
MIKE PANONE kept going until he was in Brooklyn, then stopped to wipe the soot off his face.

"The sky was just a big black cloud and I couldn't outrun the cloud."

 
CAROL WEBSTER had just come out of the PATH train station when the first plane crashed. She ran uptown.

"I heard a lot of people saying `Jesus Christ' — I don't know in what way. I heard people asking how they were going to get home and I told them to get down on their knees and thank God they were alive."

 
PAULINE BASS went toward the South Street Seaport.

"There were shoes and bags in the street. There was about three inches of ash. People were walking without shoes."

 
MARCI UIHLEIN, from San Francisco, and her boyfriend, Joe Morris, had just entered the New York Stock Exchange when the first plane hit.

"All of my life, I've wanted to come and see New York City. Now, I want desperately to figure how to get out."

 
Beyond the Blast

MALKIE YADAIE, the owner of Ben-Ness Photos on University Place, said that people rushed in to buy disposable cameras.

"Some didn't wait for their change, just ran out. Some were screaming."

 
ESTHER ALLEN went to Public School 41 on West 11th Street to pick up her two sons and found that evacuees from Public School 234, three blocks north of the trade center, had been brought there. She volunteered to stay with a class of those children:

"They were shellshocked. I tried to be lively and happy with them, but no, they had seen a lot."

 
HOWARD ASHMAN, a Seventh-day Adventist, was in Midtown, with a "Jesus Saves" hard hat in one hand and a handful of Christian tracts in the other:

"People were taking the tracts today. Right across the board. They were saying, `Amen.' "

 
At St. Vincent's

BERNARD REISBECT, a critical-care physician at St. Vincent's, came outside after more than 50 injured people had been brought into the emergency room.

"I hope that we have enough morphine."

 
THE REV. LLOYD PRATOR stood on the sidewalk to meet the ambulances to bless victims and give last rites.

"It was a glimpse of hell. People were covered with debris and glass. Everyone was covered with ash."

 
KATHY MUNOZ was crying as she looked for her husband, Francisco, who had worked on the 97th floor of 1 World Trade Center.

"I just want to find him. I don't care if he's missing, I just want him home."

 
The Rescue Effort

RICHARD VITALE, a firefighter with Ladder Company 24, took the Staten Island Ferry to the scene and ran toward where the World Trade Center used to be.

"There were body parts everywhere. You couldn't tell the body parts from the metal."

 
CRAIG TECHKY, a canine officer with the New York Police Department, was taking a moment before continuing the search.

"We found a helmet and some gear, but no body. We've got to keep looking. I've got a lot of friends in there."

 
FIRST LT. BRIAN W. PELTON of the Army Reserve, from Upper Marlboro, Md., gave an impromptu CPR class on West Street.

"After eight minutes, it's likely they are brain-dead if they're still not breathing. At that point, you can give a quick shot to the heart."

 
DR. DAVID NAGEL, from New York University Downtown Hospital, was waiting to offer medical help at the rescue site.

"The entire block is incinerated. It doesn't look like anything you would be able to pull anybody out of."

 
JOE LENNON, a four-year veteran of the Fire Department, had to fight back tears.

"You lose one guy and that is major. To lose 200 plus brothers — it's not easy."