Update:
Please watch the video below provided by the Department of Defense that captures the “detail and serenity” offered by the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Also, please read the touching article by Katie Lange of the DOD News, Defense Media Activity here.
Original post:
On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, three hijacked commercial airliners attacked the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon. A fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into an open field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, only 20 minutes flying time from the nation’s capital.
Today, on the 14th anniversary of those dastardly attacks, thousands of Americans will visit several solemn but grim reminders of yet another date that will live in infamy.
Yesterday, another memorial — still a work in progress — was opened to the public: the Flight 93 National Memorial, located at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, about 2 miles north of Shanksville. It is a monument dedicated to the selfless courage and heroism of the 40 passengers and crew members on that flight who gave their lives to save the many more who would have died had the aircraft reached its presumed target, the U.S. Capitol.
Congress authorized the development of the Flight 93 National Memorial in 2002 and it has come a long way since then. The first phase of the permanent memorial was dedicated on September 10, 2011. Today, the visitors center and museum are open and one can see the goals of its architect, Paul Murdoch, beginning to be fulfilled:
Timeless in simplicity and beauty, like its landscape, both stark and serene,
the Memorial should be quiet in reverence, yet powerful in form,
a place both solemn and uplifting.
Work continues on landscaping and on the “Tower of Voices”, a nearly 100-foot bell tower with 40 chimes, one for each hero.
Kevin Sullivan at the Washington Post gives an excellent description of the memorial along with some heartrending comments by family members of the Flight 93 victims who attended the dedication:
The visitor’s center and museum is set between two soaring concrete walls that rise 40 feet high, one foot for each of those who died. It is set directly on Flight 93’s flight path, with a black stone walkway indicating the precise route that the plane followed. On the valley floor below, a large boulder marks the point of impact, serving almost as a headstone in a place where very few human remains were recovered.
The center presents the events of Sept. 11, 2001, as they unfolded. The first display that visitors encounter features that morning’s Wall Street Journal; photos of local students entering an elementary school; a diagram showing that there were 4,500 planes in the air when Flight 93 took off at 8:42 a.m. from Newark on its way to San Francisco.
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The next display features video clips of a stunned Katie Couric telling viewers of NBC’s “Today” that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. There follows video of the second plane hitting, the South Tower collapsing, the voice of ABC News anchor Peter Jennings saying, “My God.”
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Display cases are filled with tiny fragments of the plane; bits of metal and wire and electronics; a charred seat belt; a safety instruction card; bent metal spoons and forks; the Oracle employee identification card of passenger Todd Beamer; the New Jersey driver’s license of passenger Colleen Fraser; a Visa card that belonged to one of the hijackers.
Sullivan describes how, at one display, visitors can “pick up a phone and listen to some of the 37 calls that were made from Flight 93 that morning, some to 911 and some to family members.”
Calls such as “I just wanted to tell you I love you. We’re having a little problem on the plane. I’m totally fine. I just love you more than anything, just know that,” by Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, left as a message on her husband’s answering machine, and one by Linda Gronlund to her sister: “I just love you and I just wanted to tell you that. I don’t know if I’m going to get the chance to tell you that again or not.”
Of course, we will never forget Todd Beamer’s final words to a GTE operator, “Okay. Let’s roll.”
Sullivan quotes Gordon Felt, whose brother died in the crash and who is now president of Families of Flight 93, saying: “Our loved ones left a legacy for all of us.”
They certainly did.
Lead image: Design View of the Visitor Center Complex looking west from the top of the Memorial Groves. The visitor center itself is located between the parallel walls. Credit: bioLINIA and Paul Murdoch Architects
All photos: Courtesy National Park Service
