11 September 2008
Memorial to September 11 Victims Graces Pentagon Landscape
Bush dedicates Pentagon Memorial on attack’s seventh anniversary
Arlington, Virginia — There are 184 new stainless steel cantilevered benches on the southwest side of the Pentagon. Beneath each bench is a small reflecting pool offering the rippling sound of moving water with nearby paperbark maple trees providing shade.
Seven years after terrorists commandeered American Airlines Flight 77 and flew it into the Defense Department, these benches were unveiled as part of a permanent memorial to the 184 people who died in the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. President Bush dedicated the Pentagon Memorial, which had been under construction since June 2006.
The memorial resides on the southwest side of the building where the crash occurred. All 59 passengers perished in the 560-kilometer-per-hour attack, and another 125 people died inside the building from the impact and associated jet fuel fire and falling debris. Another 2,829 victims died in a separate set of airliner attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and another 41 aboard a third aborted flight downed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Those who died in Arlington, when the aircraft cut through five concentric corridors of Pentagon concrete, were scientists, doctors, uniformed personnel, contractors, teachers, pilots, administrative aides and flight crew.
During the dedication ceremony, Bush said the memorial will become “a place of learning” for future generations. “The day will come when most Americans have no living memory of the events of September the 11th,” he said. “When they visit this memorial they will learn that the 21st century began with a great struggle between the forces of freedom and the forces of terror.”
The newly unveiled memorial at the Pentagon was designed to be a place for family and friends to sit and remember and for the public to visit and reflect. Many individuals contributed to its construction, including an Iraqi immigrant living in Illinois who helped give luster to the metal used for the benches.
The rows of granite-topped benches are arranged by the age of the victims, from youngest to oldest. To read the inscribed benches for those who died on the passenger jet, visitors look away from the Pentagon. To read inscriptions for those who died inside, visitors face the building’s facade.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England said the nearly five-hectare acre site is for the families, the Pentagon community and for “everyone in America, because this [is] the first memorial to really remember those who were killed.”
HALLOWED GROUND COMMEMORATES LOSS AND RESILIENCE
For family and colleagues, this is sacred ground — a quiet place for healing and solace. Some see it as an opportunity for closure. Others see it as a place to feel close to those whose lives were cut short in a crushing instant.
Jim Laychak, who leads the private fundraising effort for the $32 million memorial, lost his brother in the attack on the Pentagon. Prior to the dedication ceremony, he told CNN: “This is hallowed ground for a lot of the family members, and the essence of this place will be about . . . those [whom] we lost.”
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, said the memorial reflects the resilience of the United States. Mullen said it also serves as a constant reminder of renewal.
On the evening of September 11, the memorial opens to the public with a musical tribute by the U.S. Navy Band and the Sea Chanters Chorus. Like other memorials in the capital area, it will remain open around the clock, every day of the week. The site is expected to draw millions of visitors annually.
John Cogbill, chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission, said the devastation of September 11 “is forever burned into the hearts of Americans.” He told America.gov the new memorial honors the memory of those who lost their lives there. “This uniquely symbolic memorial is a welcome addition to the capital’s landscape,” he added.
For the architects who designed the memorial, the unveiling is a culmination of years of work and accompanying life changes. Columbia University graduates Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman were living together in New York working for separate architectural firms when the September 11 attacks occurred. Their firsthand experience inspired collaboration on a personal submission to a 2002 international design competition for the memorial. Their design was selected in 2003.
They moved to Virginia to oversee the project’s launch and later married. In 2006, they moved their company, Kaseman Beckman Advanced Strategies, to Philadelphia although they continued to commute to Washington on memorial-related business.
They said they always will be inspired by the strength and determination of the family members they met while refining their design over the past six years. Countless individuals contributed to the birth of the memorial, the two wrote in a recent statement about the memorial, “so that its contemplative integrity will persist into the distant future, and with its dedication the Pentagon Memorial will take on its own life, attracting meaning and contemplative interpretation from all who visit this special place.”
For more about the Pentagon Memorial, see a special Defense Department Web site.
The White House transcript of Bush's remarks is available on America.gov.
For additional information about U.S. policy, see Confronting Terrorism and an issue of eJournal USA, “Rebuilding and Resiliency Five Years After 9/11.”
