At the time, I lived in Atlantic Highlands, NJ on the south end of NY Bay. A commuter ferry traveled from that town and the one next to it, Highlands, NJ to and from lower and mid town Manhattan. Very shortly after the attack the ferries were used to bring people back to NJ from Manhattan. How that was organized is still a mystery to me. A buddy was a cop in Highlands, NJ and I was with him later in the day as the ferries would arrive and disembark passengers. Interestingly, there were NYPD officers on the ground there at the dock who were interviewing passengers as they came off the ferry.
There is an overlook in town, Mount Mitchill, which at 266 ft above sea level is the highest point on the Eastern seaboard south of Maine, where one can see Manhattan across the bay. The smoke rising from the destroyed towers kept rising for days. The coastal area there is one of the glide paths for JFK and on that day and there was no traffic and that continued for at least two days. One of those days that changed the world.