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National Park Service

Center honoring United Flight 93 to open day before 9/11 anniversary

Melanie Eversley
USA TODAY

Almost 14 years to the day of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the National Park Service is preparing to open a visitor center on the site where United Flight 93 went down outside Shanksville, Penn., killing 40 people and four hijackers.

A memorial, visitors' center and learning center are dedicated to United Flight 93 outside Shanksville, Penn.

The site, which includes a 4,000-square-foot permanent exhibit and a Wall of Names of the passengers and crew, will be dedicated in a ceremony Sept. 10 that will include Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Representatives for the families of those who died will speak. The public is invited but will need to make reservations.

“The Flight 93 National Memorial Visitor Center will open on Sept. 10, on time and within budget, thanks to the dedicated effort of the memorial staff, our partners and our contractors,” Steve Clark, superintendent of the memorial, said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming visitors and providing them a fuller story about the heroic efforts of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93.”

Up until 2001, the community of not quite 250 people in southwest Pennsylvania was mostly known for the grist mill and two sawmills built by Christian Shank, a German immigrant who built a cabin on a creek in the area in 1798.

Shanksville became internationally known after the terror attacks that left almost 3,000 people dead. United Flight 93 was headed from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco when hijackers attempted to steer it to the U.S. Capitol for a direct hit. Those on board the jet rushed the cockpit, thwarting the plan and sending the jet crashing into an empty field.

The site includes the visitor center, a learning center and  paved walkway that traces the jet’s flight path. A Sacred Ground memorial plaza marks off the point of the jet's impact, and 40 memorial groves and a bridge allow space for reflection.

The media will be able to tour the site the day before the opening, but it is mostly being kept under wraps, so family members and loved ones  have a chance to view it first, said Mike Litterst, public affairs officer for the park service.

The design is by Los Angeles architect Paul Murdoch, and it won over 1,000 entries.

Congress voted to make the site the country's 386th national park Sept. 24, 2002.

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