Pentagon 9/11 Memorial
The Pentagon Memorial commemorates all who died on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists slammed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
The Pentagon Memorial commemorates all who died on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists slammed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. Fifty-nine passengers and crew on board the plane lost their lives that day, along with 125 military and civilian personnel at the Pentagon. They were among the nearly 3,000 people killed in attacks on the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and on a plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pa., that day.
Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman developed the Pentagon Memorial design. Their vision for the memorial was selected from more than 1,100 submissions by a panel of architects, family members, and public figures in the Washington, D.C. area, including two former secretaries of defense. The memorial opened on September 11, 2008, seven years after the attack.
The Pentagon Memorial captures a specific moment in time - 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, when 184 souls were lost. The $22 million memorial sits on two acres of land outside where the jetliner struck the building. Dozens of crape myrtle trees surround the serene landscape. There are 184 memorial benches dedicated to each of the victims, and they're organized in a timeline of their ages, from the youngest victim, 3-year-old Dana Falkenberg, to the oldest, 71-year-old John Yamnicky.
Each bench contains a pool of water that reflects light in the evenings, and they're all positioned in a way that distinguishes the victims onboard the airplane from those inside the Pentagon.
The benches for the 59 jetliner passengers are positioned so a visitor will face the sky when reading the victim's name. Those dedicated to the victims inside the building have the victim's name and the Pentagon in the same view.
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