WORLD> America
Memorial to 9/11 victims set to open at Pentagon
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-09 11:10

Arlington, Virginia -- For tourists, the new memorial to 184 people who died at the Pentagon in the September 11 terrorist attacks is not especially convenient. Nor is it ideal from a security perspective to have 24-hour public access right outside the US military's nerve center.

But there is little dispute that the new memorial, which opens to the public Thursday, was built right where it should have been: at the spot where American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the west wall of the Pentagon.

"This is hallowed ground," said James Laychak, whose brother, David Laychak, was killed in the attack.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will speak at a ceremony dedicating the memorial Thursday morning. It opens to the public that evening.

The memorial, built on an angle parallel to the plane's path just before it crashed, consists primarily of 184 cantilevered benches, each bearing a victim's name.

The two-acre (0.8-hectare) park will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will be patrolled by the Pentagon Police Department. While it is just a short walk from a Metro subway station, it is on a patch of land previously trafficked almost exclusively by Pentagon workers.

William R. Stout, deputy chief of operations for the Pentagon Police Department, acknowledged some ambivalence about the location.

"If you're asking me as deputy chief of operations if I'm happy with the location, I'd have to say 'no,"' Stout said. "But overall, it seems logical to me to have it here. ... We'll have eyes on it all the time."

It was not a given that the memorial would be located at the site of the crash. The Pentagon suggested about 10 different options. But family members were adamant that the memorial be built where the plane hit, Laychak said.

Laychak, also president of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, said the fund has already raised the $22 million needed to build the memorial, but fundraising efforts continue to help pay for its upkeep.

   Previous page 1 2 Next Page