Backers behind the Pentagon’s long-anticipated 9/11 memorial visitor center are prepared to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday after the nation remembers the deadly al Qaeda terrorist attacks 25 years ago.
The ceremony is expected to mark the start of construction soon, but the project still needs to receive final approval from the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission. The center itself won’t be opening until 2029 at the earliest.
The $100 million 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center has been a long time in the making. The Pentagon is the only location of the three 9/11 attack sites that doesn’t have a visitor center or museum yet.
Two airplanes, hijacked by Islamic terrorists, crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Another hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania after passengers revolted and attempted to breach the cockpit.
Nearly 3,000 victims died in the terrorist attacks, with 184 of those deaths stemming from the Pentagon attack.
The Pentagon’s proposed 9/11 memorial visitor center is set to be located across the street from the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
The groundbreaking ceremony will come days after the National Park Service designated the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial as an affiliated area of the National Park System.
The visitor center is being spearheaded by the Pentagon Memorial Fund, a private nonprofit group founded by the families and friends of the victims in the Pentagon attack, in collaboration with the Department of War.
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The 52,000-square-foot visitor center is planned to include exhibits, educational programs, a cafe, a bookstore, and event spaces. Admission is planned to be free once the indoor center is completed.
“Too often, visitors leave the Pentagon Memorial with a sense of longing to understand from start to finish the tragic happenings of that day, in that spot. That is why we need the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center,” the website for the Pentagon memorial says. “The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center will serve to fill a vital role in telling the untold story.”