That was eerie! I felt my apartment building start to rock and sway as the walls were creaking. Not something I’m used to as a NY native, and not something I loved to experience 20+ floors above the ground.
On the 38th floor in Hell's Kitchen, I felt my chair and desk shake. It was like 10 seconds long.
One of my neighbours often close their doors with force which causes the wall to vibrate. Then I noticed things not attached to the walls also were shaking and understood it's an earthquake. I also noticed lots of birds flying near the Hudson River. I have never thought I would feel an earthquake here.
I also searched Google to see if there's an earthquake, and at 10:23am nothing was showing up. I remember a year ago Google used to ask "Have you felt your building start shaking", and nothing this time.
I was at a coffee shop in Astoria and it sounded like the subway running under. My first thought was that there is no line under this street (been living here forever). Then I thought maybe a jet liner flew over too close. But then judging by other people's reaction, I realized that this was an earthquake. I had no idea that you can hear earthquakes...
I was in the one in Seattle around 2000 on the 5th floor of a building, and I distinctly remember walking down the hall with the building swaying like a boat in a storm, wondering when the whole thing was just going to snap and crumble into a pile of rubble. Luckily it turns out they make modern buildings not do that. I've been back to that building and they still have cracks in the stairwell from it, though.
I experienced a 3.8 (I think) in Dallas some years ago, 30 stories up. It was likely caused by oil drilling action in the area, as Texas is not an earthquake zone if I remember correctly. It was not fun, no dampers in that building.