What does an earthquake feel like?

I have a pretty nice little perch here in Midtown Manhattan on the 10th floor with lots of windows facing north and south. The first indication that something was amiss was just before 2 PM. I felt something move through my stomach first...a certain queaziness...is this what cat's and dogs feel when they react before earthquakes hit? Immediately after that a wave moved through everone all at once in concord with the floors and walls. We were all stopped short for a second then a phone operator said "I don't feel good". Our IT guy Marc had been installing a white board on the wall behind me and was striking a hammer...we looked at each other and it took a second for me to internalize that it would be impossible to make a building shake with a hammer. A text from my wife came through..."Our building is being evacuated" and I thought...In Manhattan being in the middle of a street surrounded by huge buidings that could fall on you might not be a good idea. Perhaps the sheep meadow in Central Park. 

The building managment have had construction working on the outdside of the building all summer and were hanging on a scaffold just outside my window. The entire scaffold swayed back and forth and the workers stopped what they were doing long enough to curse in Spanish. Then they started back in working.