Construction is underway on the $58 million memorial to the passengers and crew of United Flight 93. The plane crashed in Somerset County after passengers challenged terrorists on September 11, 2001. Several hundred people gathered Saturday under an unseasonably warm sun to break ground on the memorial. It will eventually feature a 93-foot tower with 40 wind chimes, one representing each of the men and women who died when the plane crashed in the field just outside of Shanksville. A visitors' center will also be built, along with a walking path circling the crash site. Gordon Felt, the president of Families of Flight 93, said the structure will honor the passengers who fought back. But he says it will also be geared toward future generations who will only know about September 11th from history books, “In this place, on this site, they will have a lasting and permanent memorial standing in tribute, and capable of expressing the event in a much more personable and tangible fashion.” The first phase of the memorial is planned to be open by the 19th anniversary of he September 11th attacks. That phase will include a stone plaza and a memorial wall adjacent to the crash site. Visitors will be able to leave remembrances in niches built into the wall much like they do on the fence at the temporary memorial today. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar attended the ceremony, praising the men and women who stood up to terrorists trying to attack Washington, DC.” Salazar vowed to make sure the memorial's first phase is complete by the tenth anniversary of the attacks. The Secretary also announced that York County's Arrow Kinsley Joint Ventures has won the contract to build the memorial.
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