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Pentagon Memorial Tour | Flight 93 Crash Site Memorial | WTC Memorial Tour

Competition Will Decide Pentagon Memorial Design

Pentagon Memorial Slideshow

Today, the Pentagon looks much like it did before Sept. 11. Reconstruction of the gash cut into it by American Airlines Flight 77 was that quick.

It took nine months to rebuild the parts of the three outer rings of the massive office building that had to be torn down after the attacks. The goal has been to have people working again in the outer ring on the first anniversary.

But those who lost loved ones there want to see a memorial that will help people remember the tragedy. The families are urging creation of a memorial that "translate this terrible tragedy into a place of solace, peace and healing."

More than 1,600 people have entered the design competition so far. Entries have been received from every state but South Dakota and from as far away as Africa. The Corps of Engineers plans to place the winning design on nearly two acres, about 165 feet from the impact site.

WTC Site Redevelopment Plans Still Undetermined

WTC Memorial Slideshow

What will replace the twin towers? There will definitely be a memorial to the victims. There will be some commercial buildings, and a transportation hub.

But aside from that, there's not much agreement on just what the area should look like.

The agencies in charge of rebuilding the site released six potential plans in July. Each one had office towers of 60 to 80 stories grouped around a memorial. And the reviews were nearly all negative. So other ideas are being considered.

There are a couple of restrictions. For one thing, many of the victims' families want the actual "footprints" where the buildings stood to remain undeveloped.

And the existing lease requires that there be millions of square feet of office space, plus a hotel and a mall.

Flight 93 Crash Site Draws Hundreds Daily

Flight 93 Memorial Slideshow

Tourists have been flocking to Shankesville, Pa., to visit the temporary memorial constructed near the Flight 93 crash site. Hundreds of visitors a day have been packing the gravel patch overlooking the field where the jetliner crashed a year ago.

The National Park Service and local officials where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed asked a congressional subcommittee in July to support a bill to expedite a national memorial at the Sept. 11 crash site.

The site is awaiting congressional approval as a national memorial.

Sept. 11 Memorials Created Across Country

The memorials to the Sept. 11 victims won't be limited to the three sites of the terror attacks. All over the country, communities are establishing their own memorials.

Communities across the nation responded with an outpouring of generosity and grief after last September's attacks: There were candlelight vigils, flags flying, blood donations and hundreds of millions of dollars poured into charities.

A year later, America has turned to commemorating the tragedy in concrete and steel, in words and fabric, in churches, museums, and even tattoo parlors.

There are scholarships and songs, quilts and paintings, exhibits and displays, videos and tens of thousands of Web sites. There are public memorials that will scrape the sky and private mementos already buried in the earth.

"There's a desperate need for people to be connected," said Nick Carpasso, an art historian in Massachusetts and expert on public memorials.

Two of the beams that were salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center will be placed in front of a Tennessee high school, shaped into a tribute to those who died.

Other communities are also bringing back the dented beams from the trade center for displays.

In Napierville, Ill., the beams will stand alongside rubble from the Pentagon -- as part of a memorial for a hometown boy, Capt. Dan Shanower. He was a naval intelligence officer who died at the Pentagon.

Other memorials aren't meant to be seen. In Ridgewood, N.J., families of 12 victims buried a vault containing remembrances from their loved ones.

In Washington, D.C., a bronze capsule filled with mementos from the attack on the Pentagon, along with victims' names, was placed behind a slab of limestone blackened in the crash.

Some have commemorated Sept. 11 in a way America has traditionally honored presidents and famous people: renaming streets, schools, public buildings, athletic fields, commuter ferry boats.

A New Jersey post office has been named for Todd Beamer, the Flight 93 passenger whose simple exhortation, "Let's roll," became a rallying cry against terrorism. And there's a Jason Dahl school in California, honoring one of the pilots of that flight.

The heroics of the firefighters also live on.

In Las Vegas, a fence outside the New York New York Hotel displays more than 1,000 T-shirts from fire departments worldwide and plans are under way for a permanent memorial. In Watertown, S.D., New York firefighters are saluted with a fire hall mural painted by high school art students.

And New York firefighters themselves have found a special - and permanent - way to remember. One Staten Island shop reports that more than 300 of them, some retired, have received a Sept. 11 memorial tattoo.

The scope of the attacks has inspired one man to turn to oil paint and a brush to pay tribute to the more than 3,000 people killed.

Michael DeMinico, a 50-year-old Florida trial lawyer who also is a painter, wants to capture on canvas all those who died in the attacks.

Bill Bace, a former New York real estate executive, is trying to do the same with a quilt, an idea modeled after the AIDS quilt memorial.

"These were not faceless people who died, they have names and families," said Bace, who already has collected about 80 panels.

While Bace's project could take years, museums already have moved quickly to put powerful reminders of that day on display.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History will have an exhibit in September that will include former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's baseball cap and cell phone.

A mangled red fire truck from Engine Company 6, buried under a pedestrian bridge when the north tower collapsed on it, will be featured at the New York State Museum along with an oral history from one of its survivors.

MEMORIALS:

Small granite monument placed at Ohio air traffic control center that had last contact with United Airlines Flight 93 before it crashed.

Massachusetts Port Authority plans to plant grove of trees, one for each victim on two hijacked planes that took off from Boston.

Memorial planned in Bergen County, N.J., home to more than 100 victims.

Waterfront memorial planned at park in Hoboken, N.J., home to more than 50 people killed. Trees also being planted in park for each victim.

Thirty-three acre farmland memorial in Massachusetts being prepared to honor John Ogonowski, captain of American Airlines Flight 11, fourth-generation farmer.

NAMES:

Road and post office in Deer Park, N.Y., named for Ray Downey, New York City's most decorated firefighter.

New York City Council passed bill to rename stretch of West 31st Street after the Rev. Mychal Judge, Fire Department chaplain. Commuter ferry boat also named after him.

Alabama Legislature designated Interstate 65 - main north-south route through state - "Heroes Highway" in memory of those killed.

Section of Highway 129 in Alabama named to honor Johnny Spann, CIA agent killed in prison uprising in Afghanistan.

Baseball field in Delaware named after Matthew Flocco, killed in Pentagon.

Dialysis wing in Ethiopia being named for Dr. Yeneneh Betru, pulmonary specialist killed.

Bench and flagpole on Atlantic City, N.J., boardwalk named for Victor Saracini, pilot of United Airlines Flight 175.

SCHOLARSHIPS:

Indiana University plans scholarships honoring three men, fathers of IU students, who died at World Trade Center.

New York law grants children and spouses of Sept. 11 victims and New York members of military killed in war on terror four-year scholarship at state or city of New York university or equivalent private college.