Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago I was working on the third or fourth floor of an office building in Fairfax, Virginia when we heard that something had happened in New York. Someone in the company set up some large televisions in one of the open meeting rooms and employees came to watch events unfolding that morning. A little later we heard that something had ocurred at the Pentagon. From our east facing offices, 12 miles west of the Pentagon, we could see dark grey smoke drifting up into the sky. I felt that something had happened that day that would change everything.

Looking back, many things did change and I wonder if in one hundred years, September 11 will be remembered as one of the most significant events of the new millennia? Right now, it has surely joined July 4, and December 7 among the most well known dates in American history that are part of our collective memory.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to visit all three sites of the September 11 events and the memorials in those places are another testament to how things have changed. I lived in the New York area for a number of years and on the few occaisons that I have returned, the sight of the skyline, with those two buildings missing is always a bit jarring. In my memory they are still there.

On a trip through western Pennsylvania in 2009 my wife and I stopped in Shanksville to see the temporary Flight 93 Memorial that had been established by the National Park Service. And this past Friday, I finally went to see the outdoor memorial at the Pentagon.

Pentagon Memorial

The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial is very thoughtfully designed with steel benches faced with marble for each of the victims, with their names engraved on them. The benches have a gentle curve as they come up from the ground and they are in laid out in rows, by the dates of birth of the person represented. There is a small pool of water directly under each bench and the benches are turned one direction or another based on whether the person was on the plane or in the building on that fateful day. There are trees planted in among the benches. I was there about six o’clock on a Friday afternoon, so there was a great deal of noise from the traffic and from planes landing at Reagan National Airport. I imagine late at night when it’s quiet and the lights from the small pools can be seen, it would be a place for quiet contemplation. The memorial is open to the public 24 hours a day.

Temporary Flight 93 Memorial in August 2009

I recalled my visit to Shanksville, and realized that location is very different from the other two. It’s rural, although not far off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the surrounding farm country is peaceful and calm. It’s hard to imagine the intense struggle that must have taken place when the passengers realized what was happening to their plane and decided they had to take action. The temporary memorial we saw has been removed and a new permanent memorial is taking its place. The creation of these places will help us keep the events of that day in from being forgotten.