General Discussion & Chat: Best/Worse &What did I learnt today/Chat with Friends #102, 1 by Bettypauze

Bettypauze wrote:
Pentagon Memorial was an emotional stop..the boys did learn in school about 9/11 so seeing and hearing about history kept their attention

Copied a bit of the write up for this one....

The focus of the memorial is 184 cantilevered benches built over a pool of lighted water. Each bench is engraved on the end with the name of one of the 184 people who died on board Flight 77 or in the Pentagon that day.

The benches are arranged by age, with the bench of the youngest victim, 3-year-old Dana Falkenberg, in the far southeast corner and the bench honoring 71-year-old John Yamnicky in the northwest corner.

For Wendy Ploger, whose father and stepmother died aboard Flight 77, the benches add special meaning to the memorial.

"I don't know how to describe it, but it tells the story of what happened, which is sort of what helps me to heal," said Ploger, whose relatives were on their honeymoon when they died.

The benches for the 59 victims on board the plane are arranged so that someone reading the name on the end of the bench will face the sky where the plane came from. The 125 benches for the victims inside the Pentagon face the opposite direction, so someone reading the name will look up and see the south facade of the Pentagon, where the jet hit that day.

"The way the bench is facing, my father's bench, if you read his name on the end of it, you are facing the same direction that the plane was flying [from] as it impacted the Pentagon," said Ploger, whose parents were originally scheduled to take a different flight but changed their plans.

"At first I felt a little strange sitting on it. But then, it's comfort and it feels good and I feel like I'm close to my loved one," she said.

Some of the original plans have changed since construction started in June 2006. Originally, the benches were to be made of aluminum. But aluminum can oxidize, leaving pits and white residue. The builders chose to use marine-grade stainless steel, which won't rust and can withstand the elements.

The benches are inlaid with black and gold granite mined in Spain and cut in Canada. A perimeter wall around the park is built of the same Spanish granite.

Black granite was originally chosen for the top of a perimeter wall around the park, but builders learned the hard way that on warm and sunny days, the black granite gets so hot "it could burn your tuchis," one worker said.


Ploger and Laychak say they are not sure how others will respond to the memorial, but for them, it brings a sense of peace.



This message was edited Apr 30, 2009 11:30 AM