Flight 93 National Memorial (6/25/2019)

Tuesday, June 25, 2019
A fellow Granite Farms inmate reminded us that the drive from Media, PA to Ohio passes the Flight 93 National Memorial, part of the National Park Service, near Shanksville, PA.

Flight Path Walkway marks the final leg of
the ill-fated United Airlines Flight 93

Flight 93 was hijacked by terrorists on September 11, 2001, and while it was on its way to San Francisco from Newark, NJ, other airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center Towers 1 and 2, and into the Pentagon.

American Airlines Flight 77 crash is noted on the Flight Path

Once hijacked the plane was turned toward the East Coast. The passengers on Flight 93 began making phone calls and learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Realizing they were going to die anyway, the passengers and crew decided to wrest control of the airplane from the hijackers. The hijackers then crashed the plane at full speed into the ground, where it exploded on impact. It is believed that the target of this flight was the US Capitol building, thus a crash in the city of Washington, DC was averted. The sacrifice of the 40 passengers and crew saved thousands of lives.

Some of the debris from the crash that was not totally obliterated

Tributes from the makeshift memorial that
immediately sprang up after the crash

The Flight Path continues past the Visitor Center
to an observation platform

Etched on the observation platform glass wall:
A common field one day. A field of honor forever.

In the distance below the observation platform is the Wall of Names, beyond which is a boulder marking the crash site.

Looking back at the Visitor Center (dedicated 9/10/2015)
from the observation platform

The memorial is based on a design called Crescent of Embrace (2005) by a team led by Paul and Milena Murdoch of Los Angeles. There was immediate criticism of the design because of the crescent shape. It was then modified into a circle.

The Allée of red maple trees is a circular pedestrian path
leading from the Visitor Center to Memorial Plaza;
in the foreground are some of the 40 sweetgum trees of Memorial Grove

The Wetlands Bridge is part of the circular pedestrian path

The Allée

Tributes continue to be left by visitors

The gray wall surrounds the debris field and a barely visible 17-ton
sandstone boulder placed to mark the impact site (not accessible to the public)

Approaching the Wall of Names (dedicated in 9/11/2011)

The Wall of Names and the observation platform
are aligned along the Flight Path

The Ceremonial Gate keeps the public
from the crash site (the boulder can be seen
in the 4th space from the left)

The boulder at the edge of a hemlock grove

Close-up of the Wall of Names; note the
designation of Flight Attendant under
the name on the right (KSS)

Near the entrance to the park is the
Tower of Voices (dedicated 9/9/2018)

The Tower of Voices holds 40 aluminum tubes of varying lengths, to represent the voices of the 40 passengers and crew. The chimes are activated by the wind that flows through the openings.

The Tower of Voices is surrounded by concentric circles of trees,
representing sound waves

We had lunch at the Lincoln Café (2013), in a building from
about 1870 of the Buckstown General Store and Post Office

President Lincoln's Portrait done in pennies

Close-up of the pennies