Will Include Memorial Wall, Visitor's Center Complex

An official groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday in Shanksville, PA for the Flight 93 memorial planned by the National Parks Service. The event was attended by local, state and federal dignitaries.

Jeff Reinbold, superintendent of western Pennsylvania’s National Parks, said the site will include a visitor’s center and a learning center along with a large curving wall rising out of the ground. "They will start at 15 feet and go to almost 40, 450 feet long. These portal walls will be broken in one place, along the final flight path of Flight 93, dramatically framing views down to the crash site and to the skies above,” he said.

The Johnstown, PA Tribune-Democrat reports that construction of the new complex is expected to be completed in 2015. The National Park Foundation raised $40 million in private money to assist in the construction.

“We want to remember the 40 that gave their lives as heroes to the country, and we want to make sure that the lessons that we learned from them about taking control in a very difficult situation and making a choice that kept that plane from running into the U.S. Capitol are lessons that children can learn in the future,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

(Artist's rendering of memorial from NPS video)

FMI: www.nps.gov