I was downtown on 9-11. When they evacuated, I knew the Metro would be crowded, so I took a walk on the Mall. I had a Walkman radio so heard the news. Then I saw the Pentagon smoke so walked all the way there, across a bridge, then on an abandoned highway's shoulder. It was surreal. I could smell it and got to the police line and saw raging flames. Then I walked to Arlington, by the graves of the fallen, and took the Metro home.
@JoyfulSilence Oh wow! I drove up that weekend and walked to as close as they would let me and took some pictures. A friend's wife was in one of the offices that took damage. She survived, but spent a month in the hospital.
So much changed after. I worked near Capitol Hill and recall eating lunch in the park next to armed guards with rifles ready. Unnerving. But that went away a year later. But they put new car bomb barriers all over.
And now we are back to armed troops on the streets. But my office is in the suburbs, now. PG County, though. Yet my campus is protected by spiked fencing and armed guards!
@JoyfulSilence Yes! Times have definitely changed and not for the better. I still remember them raising the grounds around the Washington Monument and putting that barrier around it. ☹ DC is funny. They are trying to claim how crime is down, but living there you know the truth. Just look at your office and the security around it. DC has been a cesspool of crime for a long time.
Some parts of PG county are more dangerous than some parts of DC, because the latter is being gentrified: it just costs too much. Yet eastern and southern PG is still pretty rural. I think they prevented sprawl, since once you cross into Charles County, the development explodes. But it has problems, too. I considered living near Waldorf but reviews said there was drug use anf homeless people in apartment hallways!
@JoyfulSilence We only moved to Florida to take care of my dad during his bout with cancer. Now that he has passed we want to explore other places to live also. Arizona is definitely one of them.
