Flight 93 Memorial's Final Piece: The Tower Of Voices

Rising 93 feet into the Somerset County sky, the structure holds 40 wind chimes - one for each of the heroes who sacrificed themselves on one of the most awful days in American history. It’s called the Tower of Voices and it’s the final piece of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, about 80 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Serving as both a visual and audio reminder of the passengers on that fateful flight on 9/11, the tower will be dedicated Sunday at the 2,200-acre park located on a reclaimed strip mine. It’s near the crash site United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 on its way from Newark to San Francisco that hijackers had planned to crash in Washington, D.C.

At the cost of their lives, the 40 passengers and crew rose up against the terrorists and prevented the catastrophic crashes that occurred at the World Trade Center in New York and and the Pentagon in Washington.

According to the National Park Service, which operates the memorial, there are no other chime structures like this on earth. The tower’s shape and orientation optimize air flow through the tower walls and the chimes have been designed to be musically compatible with each other.

Paul Murdoch, the California architect who designed the memorial and the tower, is expected to be on hand for the dedication. The National Park Service did not immediately respond Wednesday to a Patch request for additional information regarding the ceremony.

Funding for the design and construction of the project is provided through private donations to the National Park Foundation and the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial.

Image via YouTube.

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