As a lifelong Pennsylvanian, I’ve been to all ends of the state, but the land is so full of history that there’s still so much that I want to see. One landmark that’s been on my bucket list that I’ve wanted to visit since it opened in 2011 was the Flight 93 Memorial, and I finally got there. Here is a recap of my visit to the Flight 93 Memorial.
September 11, 2001
The Flight 93 Memorial is a national park located at 6424 Lincoln Highway, Stoystown, PA 15563. It’s about a two-hour drive from my home just outside of Pittsburgh.
On September 11, 2001, I was a sophomore in high school watching TV in one of my early morning classes when the news broke in to report that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. By the end of class, we learned that a second plane had it, and everyone began to panic. We panicked even more when the news reported that a plane had hit the Pentagon. And when a fourth plane went down in Somerset County, it felt way too close to home.
Information was so limited at the time. We questioned if they were targeting our city, if there were dozens more planes looking to strike any skyscrapers they saw. Things like this didn’t happen. So, the worst-case scenarios played out in our minds.
Some kids were going home while others were calling on teachers’ phones to make sure that their parents who worked downtown were okay. It wasn’t until later that we learned that the plane had flown over Pittsburgh before it crashed and that it was heading towards D.C., likely to the Capitol Building.
But no buildings fell in Pittsburgh and no other landmarks in Washington got hit that day because the passengers onboard took action to make sure that didn’t happen. Armed with the knowledge that New York had already been hit, they decided to fight for control of the plane, even if it meant they would go down with it.
And they did.
They became the heroes of 9/11 who cut down on the number of casualties by fighting back. It’s something we all hope we have the guts to do if the occasion arises, and it’s a situation we hope we’re never put in to prove our worth.
As a result, it only seems appropriate to build a memorial in their honor. And it’s a lot more intricate than I expected.
Entering the park
The park is located off of Lincoln Highway, or Route 30. Google calls it Approach Road. Your GPS will get you there easily, and there are billboards letting you know when the turn is approaching. So, it’s hard to miss, but you’re not going to see anything from the road.
When you first enter the park, you drive around a winding road with clearly marked signs to show the three main areas of the park: the tower of voices, the visitor center, and Memorial Plaza. I decided to start at Memorial Plaza and backtrack through the park to the other attractions from there.
Memorial Plaza
There is a small parking lot at Memorial Plaza along with restrooms which are more like concrete Porta Potties, but they’re a lifesaver if you’ve been on the road for a long time. Down a short sidewalk, you’ll first see the visitor shelter. It’s a small glass building meant to protect you from the weather. Inside the building, there’s a small room with a station to write messages and pin them to a bulletin board.
On one side of the shelter, there’s an area with several boards containing information about the tragedy and its victims. On the other side of this shelter, there’s an area containing rows of benches overlooking the memorial. In front of these benches is an area for laying wreaths.
A guide was stationed in this area. He greeted visitors and offered to answer any questions that anybody had. It wasn’t a very crowded area, and the visitors were very reserved and somber and spoke quietly. They didn’t take too many photos, but I did see them holding some heavy duty cameras as they walked along.
I made my way down the concrete path along the memorial. There’s a sloped wall on each side of the path. Along the way, there are plaques about the land and the area. One piece of the wall contains a hollowed out area where visitors leave coins, firefighter patches, rosary beads, and jewelry.
The surrounding area is a large field on both sides. The field is full of wildflowers. A group of deer were eating in the field before bounding away towards the trees which border the field. There’s a plaque back by the visitor shelter which describes all of the plant life that grows in the area.
The memorial wall
At the end of the path, there’s a white marble wall made up of 44 individual pieces. Each piece contains the name of a victim on Flight 93 in alphabetical order. The crew’s titles are also carved into the stone. Under one name, it mentions an unborn baby on the wall with victim Lauren Grandcolas.
There’s also a door on the wall made from the wood of the hemlock trees that border the property. Flowers were left on the ground in front of the wall. The ground also has lights that illuminate the memorial at night. I’d love to see this memorial lit up after dark with no other ambient light around. I’ve also seen photos of the trees in the background in the fall which are really scenic.
The crash site
Up the hill to the right of the wall is the visitor center. A walking path leads to and from the walking center. It’s only .7 miles long. However, I opted to walk back to the car and drive to the center.
On the way back through the memorial, I found a plaque that I hadn’t noticed which points to the actual crash site. It sits far back at the edge of the field at the group of hemlock trees. A large sandstone boulder marks the crash site.
While the plane crashed straight into the ground, it threw debris into the trees, catching them on fire and burning a large patch of them. It’s created this horseshoe shaped clearing in the area that no longer looks charred and damaged but definitely altered.
The visitor center
It was a mile drive back to the visitor center. On the way, I saw rows of trees planted in the field.
Back in the day, Kellogg’s had a points program, and I would use my points to buy trees on Treecycler. You could then choose where you wanted your tree to be planted, and I often chose the Flight 93 Memorial until they had reached their quota of trees. So, it was nice to see where my trees had ended up.
The visitor center is a large building with a walkway surrounded by tall walls on both sides that lead to an overlook. It’s the most crowded stop in the park and contains a larger parking lot. The overlook is narrow, but people are pretty good about taking turns looking out over the crash site and Memorial Plaza. In the distance, there’s hilly farmland full of blue and green hues.
The sky had cleared after a morning rain, and mist rose from the hills. Windmills turned in the distance. I also saw a red farmhouse on the hill which made me wonder if that is the farmhouse from where an iconic photo of the crash was taken showing the smoke rising up from the ground.
Inside the visitor center
The visitor center contains a free museum inside. No photos are allowed inside the building. However, I did see people snapping photos with their cameras. The attractions inside are rows of exhibits which contain artifacts enclosed in glass, interactive screens with information on the victims, news footage playing on monitors, and audio stations where you can listen to sound clips of calls home to family and news reports about the investigation.
This area was particularly crowded, and it was hard to see everything up close. But it really helped to show the gravity of the situation. There were so many kids in the area who were far from being born when the tragedy occurred. It was jarring to think about this and what they had to say about what they were seeing.
There’s a small gift shop inside the visitor center that sells standard gift shop items including shirts, hoodies, books, and toys. I was shocked by how many books there were, from the famous biography, Let’s Roll by Lisa Beamer, wife of Todd Beamer, to graphic novels for kids.
I picked up a magnet, my go-to souvenir selection. The gift shop also sold a National Park Passport, and a station was set up to stamp your passport to show that you had been to the Flight 93 Memorial.
The Tower of Voices
After a quick bathroom break in a much nicer bathroom than the ones stationed at Memorial Plaza, I drove another mile towards the entrance of the park to the Tower of Voices. The turn off is clearly marked, and there’s a small parking area at this stop.
The tower is 93 feet tall and contains 40 wind chimes. The winds have to be blowing between 12 to 15 mph in order to sound. It did feel windy that day, but it must not have been windy enough because the chimes did not ring.
There was a QR code that you could use to listen to a video clip of the chimes. However, there’s little to no signal out that way. So, I had to listen to it once I got home. You can listen to it here.
This is the area where I saw people taking the most photos. People were even offering to take each other’s photos at the base of the tower. They were a lot more relaxed in this area, and there was a lot more talking and laughing.
Final thoughts on the Flight 93 Memorial
Overall, I spent about two hours at the Flight 93 Memorial. I took my time and learned a lot of information that I didn’t previously know or had forgotten about.
I feel like the decision to turn the memorial into a national park was a good one. It makes it feel less like a graveyard and more like a preserved piece of land to honor a spot where 44 people did a good thing to conquer the evil actions of a few. It’s impressive but not gaudy. It’s a lot to see without eating up your whole day so that you can explore other nearby landmarks.
I found myself wondering about the farmer on whose land the plane landed and how he gave up that land in order to allow this memorial to be built. As scary as it was watching the events of 9/11 play out from my classrooms in Pittsburgh, it had to be surreal to have one piece of the tragedy occur in your own backyard.
There’s so much destruction in this world that it’s easy to close it off and pretend like it never happened or turn it into a place of mourning. But when you can turn it into something positive while still honoring that tragedy, that’s inspiring.
Have you been to the Flight 93 Memorial or any other September 11th landmarks? If so, leave your experiences in the comments below.
Also, check out my post, 7 of My Favorite East Coast Museums, which includes my visit to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.
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A fitting memorial to 44 exceptionally brave people.