Twenty-two years after American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, killing 184 people, leaders of the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial are working to build a visitor education center — within sight of the Pentagon — to focus on how the nation persevered and changed.
The long-planned 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center is meant to complement the Pentagon Memorial, which was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2008, with a cantilevered bench to honor each victim.
The Ground Zero Museum, in New York City, tells the story of the origins of terrorism and the prior terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. The Flight 93 National Memorial provides details of the heroism aboard the plane that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The website for the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial states: “The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center will tell a very different story. The focus will be on how America responded and moved forward. It’s the ‘final chapter’ without which a true understanding of September 11th simply is not possible.”
The education center will be located within a portion of the cemetery, which is currently undergoing expansion, to add 60,000 burial sites.
Currently, Columbia Pike is in the midst of a major realignment project.
The facility, which has been in the works for years, will be built with private funding.
