Qualla: Pentagon Memorial

Pentagon Memorial: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Duane Lempke, CC0. On the morning of September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 - a Boeing 757 that had departed Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:20 a.m. bound for Los Angeles - was hijacked over Ohio, turned around, and flown back to Washington. At 9:37 a.m. the aircraft struck the western face of the Pentagon at approximately 530 miles per hour. The impact killed all 64 people on board the plane — 59 passengers and crew members and five hijackers — and 125 people inside the building. A total of 184 lives ended in a span of less than a second. Seven years to the day later, on September 11, 2008, the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial opened on the patch of ground southwest of the building where the aircraft had come down. Designed by Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman with the engineering firm Buro Happold, the memorial is 184 cantilevered steel benches set in a deliberately ordered grid across two acres of stone and gravel. Each bench bears one name.

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Image: Duane Lempke | CC0

Pentagon Memorial: 184 Benches, Two Directions

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0. The benches are organized by age - youngest to oldest - reading from the impact line of the aircraft. The youngest victim was three-year-old Dana Falkenberg, who was on Flight 77 with her parents and older sister, traveling to Australia for a sabbatical. The oldest was retired Na...

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Image: Eddie Maloney from North Las Vegas, USA | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pentagon Memorial: Where the Plane Hit

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mr. Johnson, often nefarious, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Pentagon Memorial occupies approximately two acres of land immediately southwest of the Pentagon's west wall - the wall the aircraft struck. The site falls within the line the aircraft followed during its final seconds of flight. The damaged section of the Pentagon itself was...

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Image: Mr. Johnson, often nefarious | CC BY-SA 2.0

Pentagon Memorial: Beckman and Kaseman

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Aude, CC BY-SA 3.0. Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman were both newly graduated architects when their design was selected from approximately 1,100 entries in the international competition that closed in 2003. They were partners in the firm Kaseman Beckman Advanced Strategies, working out of New York. ...

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Image: User:Aude | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pentagon Memorial: The Missing Education Center

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Aude, CC BY-SA 3.0. Of the three sites struck on September 11, 2001, the Pentagon is the only one without a dedicated visitor education center. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York opened in 2014. The Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania - which...

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Image: User:Aude | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pentagon Memorial: Section 60 and the Pentagon's Pentagonal Marker

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The U.S. Army, Public domain. Beyond the outdoor memorial, additional commemoration of the Pentagon victims exists at Arlington National Cemetery, three quarters of a mile southwest. On September 12, 2002 - the day after the first anniversary of the attacks - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of ...

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Image: The U.S. Army | Public domain