The center is designed so it will be broken in two at the point where the plane, hijacked on Sept. 11, 2001, flew overhead.
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Relatives of Flight 93 victims joined the secretary of the interior Sept. 9 for a groundbreaking ceremony for the visitor center at the crash memorial in western Pennsylvania.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell drove the first stake to mark the site, which is on a ridge overlooking the spot where United Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, after passengers fought back against hijackers. People who lost family members in the crash also participated, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Dan Rooney, chairman emeritus of the Pittsburgh Steelers, attended the ceremony.
The 6,800-square-foot visitor center is designed so that the building will be broken in two at the point of the plane's flight path overhead and is expected to open in late 2015. The ridge will be built up to give people a clear view of the crash site, which is near a memorial wall that lists the names of all 33 passengers and seven crew members who were killed.
Flight 93 was traveling from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when it was diverted from the likely goal of crashing it into the White House or Capitol.
The Friends of Flight 93 volunteer group also announced that it has selected its first executive director. Norwood R. "Rob" Dennis will be responsible for day-to-day management and fund-raising to help support the memorial. Dennis was formerly the chief executive officer of the National Science Center in Washington, D.C.
Dennis is a graduate of Augusta College in Augusta, Ga. He has relocated to Pennsylvania and will begin the new position immediately.
The Flight 93 National Memorial is located in Shanksville, about 75 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
It plans to honor victims of the Sept. 11 attacks with a bell-ringing ceremony at the time when United Flight 93 crashed, killing 40 passengers and crew.
The National Park Service says that at 10:03 a.m. Sept. 11, the names of all 33 passengers and seven crew members will be read, and bells will be rung in their memory during a 40-minute ceremony.
From noon to 5 p.m., park rangers and volunteers will give presentations about Flight 93 and the creation of the memorial park. At 4 p.m., rangers will present a program titled "Flight 93's Final Minutes: The Flight Data Recorder Story."
The first features of the memorial in Shanksville were completed and dedicated in September 2011, including new roads and a Memorial Plaza near the crash site. Forty memorial groves of trees have also been planted, and large sections of the park have been replanted or reforested.
Visitors to the park have left more than 35,000 tributes at the site, and they have been collected as part of an archival collection.
Related:
http://www.nps.gov/flni/historyculture/upload/Biographies-Passenger-Crew.pdf
