Family members, survivors and first responders turned out Saturday to break ground on a visitor center at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial 18 years after the historic site first opened.
The $100 million Pentagon 9/11 Memorial Visitor Education Center, located across a busy parkway from the Pentagon and its adjacent memorial in Arlington, Virginia, will contain exhibits and host programs about the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The facility, expected to open in 2029, will also include event spaces, a cafe and bookstore.
The Pentagon Memorial first opened to the public on Sept. 11, 2008, the first of the three attack sites to have a monument. It will be the last, however, to have a museum or visitor center explaining its importance and impact on American history.
“We want people to remember what happened here. We want people to remember our loved ones. We want people to remember that feeling that swept through our country after 9/11 — that feeling of taking care of others who were in such pain,” said Jim Laychak, the Pentagon Memorial Fund board chairman and the brother of David Laychak, a U.S. Army budget executive who died in the building.
At 9:37 a.m. EST on Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 was deliberately crashed into the western facade of the Pentagon. Fifty-nine passengers and crew members on the aircraft that was originally bound for Los Angeles died, as did 184 people in the building.
In New York City, 2,753 people died in similar attacks on the World Trade Center, including civilians in the buildings and on the ground, 343 firefighters and 60 police officers. In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field following a struggle between passengers and hijackers, killing 44 passengers and crew members.
The Pentagon Memorial features 184 cantilevered, stainless steel and granite benches, each with a lighted water feature and memorial tree. The benches are arranged by age of the victims and positioned so that visitors viewing the names of those on the aircraft face the direction of the plane’s approach, while those viewing the Pentagon victims’ names see the building in the background.
The visitor center will explain the events of the day, the significance of the memorial and the aftermath of 9/11, including the reconstruction of the affected portion of the Pentagon. The fund began raising money in 2015 to support the project and has collected roughly 25% of the funding needed, including $12 million in federal dollars and $1 million from the state of Virginia.
Organizers have requested another $35 million from Congress in fiscal 2027 and hope to cover additional expenses from private funds and corporate sponsors, including American Airlines, Amazon, Lockheed Martin and others.
The National Park Service announced Wednesday that the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial is now an area affiliated with the national park system, although the memorial will continue to remain under the care of the Department of Defense, supported by the Pentagon Memorial Fund.
The NPS also announced a $2 million grant last week to support the memorial’s operation and maintenance.
During the groundbreaking ceremony Saturday, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the visitor center will make sure the story is “told in a way that people understand it.”
“It may have been the worst day in American history, but my hope is we can learn from that, remember that — that we can remember those that ran into burning buildings but that we can also remember the nation states around the world that stood with us,” Warner said.
On Friday, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth joined with Pentagon leadership to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Trump said in the aftermath of the violence, the United States “saw the authentic spirit of our nation.”
“The enemy might destroy what American hands had built, but they could not touch the fight and fire and the love in our great American hearts,” Trump said.
More information on the fundraising and construction effort can be found on the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Fund website.