Flight 93 Crash Site

Last Sunday, January 13, I went out to Shanksville, PA to visit the Flight 93 crash site with my brother Alex and friend Andrew. We were told by friends who had visited that we would be moved the experience and that turned out to be an understatement.

Getting to Shanksville is not hard; the crash site is not far from I-70 and the roads are good. But it does require a commitment of over 3 hours each way from the DC area. When you get to Lambertsville Road, you wind down an unpaved road for a few miles and eventually reach a former strip mining area where the plane crashed. The place is pretty desolate in the winter.

Like the other 9/11 sites, there isn't an official memorial yet. The National Park Service and the Flight 93 Memorial Fund are raising money to construct the official memorial and visitor center - http://www.honorflight93.org

There is, however, a temporary memorial that is amazing to see. The NPS and local township erected a small shack, two flagpoles and a plaque. But there are thousands and thousands of memorials and artifacts that have been left by visitors. There are marble and granite plaques, t-shirts, sculptures, signs, stickers, pins, license plates -- all manner of expressions of grief, thanks, and respect. The Park service volunteer we spoke with (Donna, who volunteers her time at the memorial twice a week) says the NPS has over 30,000 artifacts in the archives.

While we were at the crash site, despite the cold, windy weather, there was a steady stream of people who came to visit. What brings people to this place, so far from an urban area? One man with a baby said it was his third visit, that his family likes to pay their respects every time they come down to visit family in MD. Another NPS volunteer says military personnel about to be shipped off to Iraq come to visit with their families, and they explain that Flight 93 is the reason they are going off to duty.

If you get a chance to go, go.