NY workers walk miles to safety
In wake of attack, commuters jam ferries or walk for miles to flee lower Manhattan

AP Photo

Two women hold each other as they watch the World Trade Center burn following a terrorist attack on the twin skyscrapers.

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Thousands of workers jammed onto ferries or walked for miles Tuesday to flee lower Manhattan after the attack on the World Trade Center.

But stepping off their ferries in New Jersey, many commuters had nowhere to go as railways and highways were shut down. Those with cell phones found them useless because of overloaded networks, and commuters lined up to use pay phones or wrangled rides with strangers.

Some Staten Island residents made it to New Jersey and then began hiking south to the Bayonne Bridge that leads to their homes. B.L. Ochman, who lives five blocks from the twin towers and saw the explosions, had boarded the first ferry she had seen. She stepped off in Jersey City, asking, "Where are we?"

Mike Kozakaewicz, 29, who lives in the Wall Street area, jumped onto a water taxi with only a backpack and a bottle of water. "Right now, I am a refugee. I have nothing but what I could carry out," he said.

Thousands more pedestrians streamed up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and other roadways to get out of the lower Manhattan financial district after several subway lines were halted.

Others walked across the Brooklyn Bridge into Brooklyn, many with hair streaked with gray ash. Jersey City police tried desperately to clear the roads and keep onlookers away.

One officer directing traffic screamed: "Get out of here! We have to bring dead bodies through here!" PATH commuter trains from Manhattan to New Jersey were canceled.

NJ Transit suspended train service into New York and Hoboken and canceled all bus service into and out of New York, spokesman Mike Klufas said. "We are utilizing all available westbound equipment to get customers out of New York and Hoboken," Klufas said.

Newark International Airport was evacuated, and stranded passengers walked along the service roads toward hotels. Ochman said she needed to get back to New York before evening to take a blood-thinning medication.

"Whatever the lowest floors of the fire was, they were jumping from them. I guess their choice was that you burn to death or you jump."