Family members, survivors and first responders gathered Saturday to break ground on a visitor center at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.
The ceremony came 18 years after the historic site first opened to the public.
The $100 million Pentagon 9/11 Memorial Visitor Education Center will stand across a busy parkway from the Pentagon and its neighboring memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Organizers expect the facility to open in 2029.
Plans call for exhibits and programs explaining the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The center will also feature event spaces, a cafe and a bookstore for those visiting the memorial and learning about the attack.
The Pentagon Memorial opened on Sept. 11, 2008, becoming the first of the three attack sites to receive a monument.
It will be the last of the three to have a museum or visitor center explaining its importance and impact on American history.
Jim Laychak, chairman of the Pentagon Memorial Fund board, said the project is intended to preserve the memory of the attack, its victims and the national response. His brother, David Laychak, was a U.S. Army budget executive who died inside the Pentagon.
“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,” Laychak said.
At 9:37 a.m. EST on Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 77 was deliberately flown into the Pentagon’s western facade.
The aircraft had originally been bound for Los Angeles.
Fifty nine passengers and crew members aboard the aircraft died, along with 184 people inside the building.
The visitor center will recount the events of that day, explain the memorial’s significance and examine the aftermath of 9/11.
In New York City, 2,753 people died in attacks on the World Trade Center.
That figure included civilians in the buildings and on the ground, as well as 343 firefighters and 60 police officers.
United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and hijackers struggled aboard the aircraft.
The crash killed 44 passengers and crew members.
The Pentagon Memorial contains 184 cantilevered stainless steel and granite benches, each accompanied by a lighted water feature and memorial tree.
The benches are organized according to the victims’ ages.
Their positioning also carries meaning. Visitors reading the names of those aboard the aircraft face the direction from which the plane approached, while people viewing the names of Pentagon victims see the building in the background.
The planned center will also explain the reconstruction of the section of the Pentagon damaged in the attack.
The Pentagon Memorial Fund began raising money for the project in 2015 and has collected roughly 25% of the required funding.
That total includes $12 million in federal money and $1 million from Virginia.
Organizers have asked Congress for another $35 million in fiscal 2027 and hope to cover additional costs through private funding and corporate sponsors.
American Airlines, Amazon and Lockheed Martin are among the corporate sponsors identified with the effort.
More information about fundraising and construction is available through the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Fund website.
The National Park Service announced Wednesday that the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial is now an area affiliated with the national park system.
The memorial will remain under the care of the Department of War, with support from the Pentagon Memorial Fund.
The National Park Service also announced a $2 million grant last week to assist with the memorial’s operations and maintenance.
The designation and grant arrived as organizers moved ahead with the visitor center.
During Saturday’s ceremony, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said the center would ensure 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.
President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth joined Pentagon leaders Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
Trump said the country “saw the authentic spirit of our nation” after the violence.
“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.
