The Flight 93 National Memorial will be a place for individuals to learn about the events of September 11 and to find meaning and inspiration in their experience. Flight 93 was the only hijacked plane on September 11 that failed to hit its intended target. The crash of Flight 93, only 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C., was the direct result of the actions of the passengers and crew who gave their lives to prevent a larger disaster at the center of American government.

The Flight 93 National Memorial design was selected through an open international design competition that invited artists, architects, individuals, and designers from all nations to submit their ideas.

The Flight 93 Partners adopted a two-stage design competition process. Out of 1,059 design submissions, five design finalists were selected during Stage I and were reviewed and evaluated by a jury comprised of family members, local leaders, and design and art professionals.

The chosen design, selected from the finalists’ Stage II entries, was announced on September 7, 2005, in Washington, D.C.

A Tower of Voices, tall enough to be seen from the highway,
heroically marks the entry to and exit from the memorial site.

Rings of White Pines surround the tower that houses 40 wind chimes.

The sounds of chimes in the wind are a living memory of the 40 persons
who are honored; many of whose last contact was through their voices.

The Bowl is a large, existing landform roughly circular in shape that forms the heart of the memorial and park.

The Bowl’s outline commemorates the collective acts of courage by the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93 with 40 groves of Red and Sugar Maple trees, referred to as the 40 Memorial Groves, in curving embrace of the Bowl’s open space as it descends to the Sacred Ground.

The memorial design expresses the union of the land’s beauty and power with the strength and sacrifice of the heroes of Flight 93 by marking the Flight Path as it breaks the circular continuity of the Bowl edge at the Entry Portal and the Sacred Ground, where the crash occurred.

The location of the temporary memorial will be recognized. Visitors will be allowed to leave tributes in niches in the sloped walls of the new Sacred Ground plaza and written comments at the visitor center.

The main entrance to the Bowl occurs at its northwestern edge. The Entry Portal is approached through a clearing of trees on a black slate plaza marking the Flight Path. High textured concrete walls frame the sky where Flight 93 descended to the crash site. The walkway leads visitors through the first wall into a plaza featuring Red Maple trees and through a second portal to give visitors their first look at the expanse of the Bowl and the crash site below. From the plaza, visitors can enter the visitor center or continue on to the tree-lined walkway that curves around the edge of the Bowl. A ring road will also follow the walkway for those unable to walk the path.

A path of Red Maple trees gradually descends around the Bowl of the Sacred Ground. Behind the walkway are the 40 groves, each with 40 Red and Sugar Maple trees that radiate from the center of the Bowl. These maple trees are indigenous to the woodlands of the Pennsylvania Laurel Highlands. They turn color in autumn and are bare-branched or green-leafed during the rest of the year. Pedestrian trails meander through the groves eventually leading to the Sacred Ground.

The wetlands will serve as a “natural” threshold of experience as the visitor approaches the Sacred Ground. As a habitat full of life, the area will be a healing landscape embraced by the curving maple path.

As the final resting place for the passengers and crew of Flight 93, the Sacred Ground is the focus of the Bowl. Here is where a grove of Hemlock trees absorbed the impact and inferno of the crash. The public can closely view the crash site from a plaza along its edge. The fields of the crash site will be planted with wildflowers that bloom from May Plaza and wild flower meadow at the Sacred Ground through September. A white stone slab on axis with the Flight Path provides entry to the Sacred Ground for ceremonies or visits by families of the passengers and crew. A concrete wall will hold a band of polished white marble inscribed with the 40 names.

The Western Overlook contains floor slabs of the mining operation buildings that were located here and will remain to evoke the memory of the structures. A meandering path will allow visitors to access this area. One foundation within the bowl clearing marks the location where the families first viewed the crash site below.

Source: www.honorflight93.org