Photo Friday: Pentagon Memorial

This week’s photograph was taken at the Pentagon Memorial, designed so that “the nation may remember and reflect on the events that occurred on September 11, 2001.” In the background, you can see The Air Force Memorial.

A short description of the memorial’s design, from cnn.com:

The focus of the memorial is 184 cantilevered benches built over a pool of lighted water. Each bench is engraved on the end with the name of one of the 184 people who died on board Flight 77 or in the Pentagon that day.

The benches are arranged by age, with the bench of the youngest victim, 3-year-old Dana Falkenberg, in the far southeast corner and the bench honoring 71-year-old John Yamnicky in the northwest corner.

The benches for the 59 victims on board the plane are arranged so that someone reading the name on the end of the bench will face the sky where the plane came from. The 125 benches for the victims inside the Pentagon face the opposite direction, so someone reading the name will look up and see the south facade of the Pentagon, where the jet hit that day.



Ted Eytan, MD