September 11 was the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attack on the pentagon. In remembrance of the tragedy, Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman designed a memorial which opened on September 11 this year.

The memorial is a set of benches. Each bench resembles one person and the names of the victims are engraved on the side of the benches. Under each bench is a little pool of water that lights up at night. In the entrance, the first memorial is of the youngest person who died while the exit is of the oldest person.

“The benches provide a place for people to go and reflect and remember their loved ones,” history teacher Jessica Abeshouse said.

The benches are laid out in a pattern according to the year each victim was born, from 1998 to 1930. Some rows, called birth-year aisles, have just one seat, while some have three or more seats.

The memorial is always open. There are a total of 184 benches. The National Park Service predicts that over two million people will visit the memorial. The Pentagon Memorial Fund, Inc. has a goal of raising $32 million. The total cost of the memorial was about $22 million. The government of Taiwan also donated one million dollars.

“I think that it is a beautiful tribute. Looking at the memorial on September 11, I felt proud of our resilience as Americans and grateful for the freedoms we enjoy,” English teacher Sheryl Anderson said.

Construction workers started building the memorial on June 15, 2006 and took a total of two years to build.

“I haven’t seen the memorial, but I bet it looks very nice,” freshman Vincent Galeano said.

On the western edge of the memorial, there is an age wall. The older the person killed, the taller the section of the wall.

Beside each bench, there is an elegant paperback maple tree. The designers chose this tree because it is the last tree to drop its leaves in the fall. Although planting the trees was one of the last ideas, these trees makes the memorial more tranquilizing and calm.

“I am really happy that there something to give tribute to the victims of 9/11,” senior Joel Jean-Simon said.

All of the granite-covered benches, called memorial units, are oriented in the direction the plane hit the building, pointing east. The memorial is placed in Arlington, Virginia and is next to a highway where everyone can see it when driving by.

This memorial is not just for the family members of a lost ones but for everyone to see. It will stand as a strong memorial that all can look at in remembrance. This place is considered a holy ground where people have something to cherish and feel closure.