[Hoot Gibson]

I was working on the 12th floor of an office building in Arlington, about 80 miles NE of the epicenter. It was by far the biggest quake that I have experienced and my wife said it knocked some picture frames down at home.

We evacuated the building and then returned to work for awhile before they decided to let everybody go home early. The Metro trains are running at 15 mph until they can inspect all of the tracks. It has been a long day.

The first thing that went through my mind when the shaking began was a terrorist attack. There are some large parking garages and a Metro train station nearby and the Pentagon and the Washington Monument are both located within 4 miles of the office tower.