The New York City SAKS FIFTH AVENUE store windows were blacked out andpoignantly read "WITH SADNESS."

The "World Trade Cross" still sits at Ground Zero where it was found and mountedon a concrete pedestal in October 2001.

The author's photos in her scrapbook from Ground Zero.

The view looking south on 5th Avenue on 9/11/01 right after the towers fell.

Streams of emergency vehicles whizzed by towards downtown.

The author's 9/11 scrapbook

The author saved all her letters she received from friends and family after9/11.

Ground Zero a few weeks after the attacks.

The Tribute in Light is an art installation in remembrance of the September 11attacks. It initially ran as a temporary installation from March 11 to April14, 2002 and has continued to run annually on September 11th.

An encouraging email from a friend that was working for the President at theWhite House in Washington D.C. The author saved every email she received fromfriends and family about 9/11.

Countless shrines filled the city.

Images of the missing haunted the city.

Time Inc, the company Meredith Riddle worked for at the time of the attacks,raised money to buy a new fire truck for Engine 23. Engine 23 was the Firehouseof her friend and coworker at Teen People Magazine whose husband was afirefighter and first responder who perished on 9/11.

Pieces of the towers that remained barely standing.

The American flag stood tall above Ground Zero.

Smoke filled the streets.

Flowers placed in memory of the fallen.

The enormous scale of the rubble and debris was unbelievable.

Just a few weeks after 9/11 is the view of the Washington Monument behind thegnarled Pentagon.

The author took this photo from the balcony of her sister's boyfriend's (nowhusband) apartment on Sept. 3, 2001, just eight days before the New York Cityskyline forever changed.

Many months after 9/11, on a flight from Houston Hobby back to New York LaGuardia, the author took an aerial view of Ground Zero.

The view in front of the iconic Flatiron Building with the mushroom of smoke inthe background. Note the gold clock in the photo. It was exactly 11:15 a.m., 47minutes after the towers fell.

With no time to turn off her computer as her building evacuated, the author'sinstant messages written during the attacks were still on the screen when shereturned to work days later; their panicked words were frozen in time.