The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial

On Saturday, 11/8, we went to experience the new 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon. The memorial was just opened to the public on 9/11 of this year, 7 years after the tragedy occurred. As you will see from the pictures below, it is very unique in its design and had a way to evoke our emotions about that day. It was almost surreal to stand at that point and imagine the airplane flying in and hitting the building.

This is marker at the entry of the memorial.

And another that lists all 184 victims.

Sorry for the shadow, but this inscription tells the date and time of the event.

Each of the 184 victims has a bench in their memory. Each bench is inscribed with a name of a victim. The benches are aligned with the flight path of the airplane. The benches that point toward the building represent those who were on the airplane. The benches that face away from the building represent those who were in the building. Under each bench is flowing water.

As I said earlier, each bench is inscribed with a name of one of the victims. This particular bench remembers Dana Falkenberg, a 3 yr old who was travelling with her family.

Note the other inscriptions underneath. These are the other members of Dana's family who were travelling on this airplane together. In all cases where people were travelling together, this was done to keep them linked together in the memorial. They have a bench of their own with inscriptions of their travelling companions or family members.

It was sobering for us to stand in the middle of this and remember ..... let us never forget!