flight 93 national memorial {july 26, 2022}

On trips that included driving on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Exit 110 pointed the way to the Flight 93 Memorial. It's always been a note to self to get there and we made it happen on this trek.

On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. came under attack when four commercial airliners were hijacked and used to strike targets on the ground. Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives. Because of the actions of the 40 passengers and crew aboard one of the planes, Flight 93, the attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted.

In Pennsylvania, you experience the profundity and power of the natural landscape of this slice of American heartland that became the scene of dreadful tragedy. You walk the flight path and imagine what might have been in the minds of those men and women as they performed the deed that almost certainly spared a third target in the sights of the hijackers. You stand before the wall separating visitors from the Sacred Ground where the plane struck earth and ponder the stunning last moments of those whose mortal remains lie in that cemetery of heroes. After the crash, most of the plane came to rest beneath the loose soil of this former mining site, and there was little else in this rural field left after the crash in the way of material to which a memorial narrative could be linked. The task of the Flight 93 National Memorial was to give form to such a narrative, and its various planned features, from the Tower of Voices to the Wall of Names that leads to the Sacred Ground, do so in a way that is at once historically informative and emotionally moving.

Following Flight 93's flight path. It lists the attacks in order on 1 WTC, 2 WTC, and the Pentagon.

A common field one day. A field of honor forever.

The Wall of Names. Located underneath the flight path and final approach of Flight 93, the Wall of Names is constructed from white marble. Forty individually selected and polished marble stones are inscribed with each of the passenger or crew member names. Black granite denotes the flight path. From the Ceremonial Gate, constructed of hemlock wood, visitors can look down the flight path to the last piece of granite etched with the time of the crash and the impact site marked by a distant sandstone boulder.

The Ceremonial Gate. Ten hemlock beams with 40 cut angles to memorialize the 40 passengers on Flight 93. Beyond the gate, the final piece of granite marks the point of the plane's impact.

Flight 93 took off from Newark with a final destination at San Francisco. It turned changed its flight pattern around Cleveland with the intent to crash into the Capitol.