The Pentagon and Memorial

The Pentagon is the highly protected (and believe me difficult to get to and away from) headquarters of the US Department of Defense.

The west side of the Pentagon (in the 6th picture here) was hit by one of the four hijacked planes on September 11th 2001, killing all 64 passengers and 125 people in the Pentagon.

The memorial site here contains one platform for each person killed, with the platforms all facing either in or away from the direction of travel of the plane when it hit, depending on if the person was a passenger or Pentagon worker.

The platforms are arranged in order of age, those being born in the same year being in the same line. The oldest was born in 1930 with the youngest being born in 1998, passing at age 3 with her 11 year old sister and parents on board. People with family onboard have their family members names at the foot of their platform.

There were also 3 other 11 year olds killed who were all on a school trip with their teachers.

It was a sad place to be but a very thoughtfully designed memorial!Read more