Flight 93 Memorial

After touring the temple on Monday morning we drove the 2+ hours to Shanksville, PA.  

The road to get there was hilly and winding which could make a person carsick in a matter of minutes.  It is beautiful though. 

That beautiful September day when America was attacked surely is memorable to all of us who lived through it.  I'm sure Whomever took this picture after hearing an explosion was shocked at what they saw.  

Being in this sacred space brought me to tears more than once.  After learning that their airplane was hijacked the passengers began making phone calls to their loved ones.  That's when they found out about the other three terrorist attacks that happened earlier.  

These people made a choice.  They could let the hijackers do whatever they had planned or they could save lives by giving their own.

Ultimately they fought back.

In doing so they were able to fight with the hijackers and the plane was flown into the ground!

This beautiful stand of trees became a fireball as the plane left a large crater in the ground.

This boulder is beyond a fence next to the wall of names of victims. It is the spot where the plane went down.  Only family members are allowed to go beyond the fence to visit that spot.

This wall was erected and each panel is for an individual person who was a crew member or innocent passenger on that flight.  Each panel is individual but they appear united just as the people on that flight were.  

This name broke my heart. There were not just 40 people who died that day.  There were 41.

Upon entering the space where the memorial is, we found the Tower of Voices.  

It is 93 feet tall.

There are 40 chimes, one for each of those innocents who gave their lives.  

The wind was brisk on this day and we heard some of the chimes.  Yet, to really get them singing, it would have to blow very strongly.  It is to remind us that these people's voices will never be silenced.   It was a sacred day walking through the Visitors' center and looking at the pictures and hearing the voices of those who left voice messages.  It was powerful and I felt the sacredness of this site.