SHANKSVILLE – This week, the nation remembered a day five years ago when 19 terrorists overtook four planes and attempted to show that they were stronger than America. Five years from now, the people of a small Pennsylvania town and those who visit there will see a ribbon-cutting at the permanent memorial.
On Monday, ceremonies were held across the nation to honor those who died. One such event was held in Shanksville, the site where 40 passengers and crew members of an airplane died when brave men and women aboard the plane decided to take control from the terrorists and prevented them from crashing the plane into likely targets of the Capitol or the White House.
A temporary memorial is near the crash site, now, a place where many of the 130,000 people who visit the site each year leave behind mementos from T-shirts to teddy bears. In the future, though, a $58 million memorial will stand on the site as a permanent reminder of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and those who died in the Flight 93 crash.
“The selected memorial design is a fitting tribute to the heroes of Flight 93,” said Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor and first director of Homeland Security. “It is breathtakingly beautiful and truly enhances the natural landscape of the crash site. The memorial is stunning in is simplicity, but so profound in its impact.”
To date, more than $7.2 million has been raised for the memorial through a capital campaign, and Pennsylvania has committed $10 million to the project. The National Park Service has also given $250,000. The group Families of Flight 93 also donated more than $1.34 million that was given to the group as a gift from Universal Studios.
The capital campaign is still far short if its $30 million goal, and donations are being accepted through the Flight 93 National Memorial Web site.
The national memorial, when completed, will encompass 2,200 acres. Memorial plans also include protection of the crash site, the final resting place of those killed aboard Flight 93. Other plans include protection of the land and the views around the sacred ground; construction of the memorial, visitors’ center, roads, parking and utilities; and a direct access road from U.S. Route 30.
The selected memorial design, created by Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angeles and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects of Charlottesville, Va., was selected by a group of family members of Flight 93 passengers, community representatives and design professionals.
Visitors entering what is known as “The Bowl” will travel through the entry portal for their first glimpse of the sacred ground along the path of Flight 93. Visitors may then pass the visitor center to descend around The Bowl on a curving, mile-long walkway to the sacred ground. Along the way, they will encounter 40 memorial groves of red and sugar maple trees. A plaza at the sacred ground will allow visitors to closely view the crash site. The Bowl’s western overlook is sited where trees will be added to the area family members first viewed the crash site after Sept. 11, 2001.