Reflect on 9/11 at the nation's memorials
On the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, reflect and remember at the nation’s three moving memorials.
National September 11 Memorial & Museum
Despite being smack in the middle of Lower Manhattan, surrounded on all sides by massive skyscrapers and bleating traffic, New York’s memorial to 9/11 is stunningly quiet. Two giant reflecting pools containing the largest man-made waterfalls in North America sit on the footprints of the original twin towers; the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day are inscribed in panels that surround the pools. The 110,000-square-foot museum contains artifacts from the destroyed buildings that commemorate those who died, and multimedia displays recall the events of the day.
$24 for adults, $18 for seniors, veterans and college students; $15 for youth
Pentagon Memorial
The jets taking off from nearby Reagan National Airport create an eerie soundtrack for the memorial, a 2-acre site just yards from the building along the fatal flight path. Granite-and-steel benches that resemble airplane wings bear the names of each of the 184 killed; visitors may sit and listen to the bubbling pools underneath each. Although the Pentagon -- located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va. -- was fully repaired less than one year after the attack, a single scorched stone was left in place near the impact point, visible from the memorial.
Free; no onsite public parking
Flight 93 National Memorial
Knowing that New York was under attack, realizing that their airplane was also about to be turned into a weapon, the 40 passengers and crew aboard the hijacked Flight 93 turned on their captors and caused the plane to crash in a field in rural western Pennsylvania rather than Washington, D.C. Set in rolling, windy countryside near Shanksville, Pa., about 75 miles east of Pittsburgh, a line of engraved marble walls follows the plane’s final path; each panel bears the name of one of those 40 heroes. The impact site — which still holds many of the remains of those on the flight — is marked with a single sandstone boulder. Remembrance bells toll every Sept. 11.
Free
