Ground will be broken at the Pentagon on Thursday for a memorial to the 184 victims who died there on Sept. 11, 2001.
The ceremony is a milestone in a project that began months after the terrorist attacks, when the victims' families held a design competition for the memorial. The winning entry calls for 184 steel benches -- one for each victim -- arranged along the path American Airlines Flight 77 took before smashing into the Pentagon.
The path will run between rows of memorial benches shaded by paper bark maples. The benches will hang above pools of water and look as if they're floating. Each bench will bear a victim's name. They'll be lined up according to the victims' ages, which ranged from 3 to 71.
The memorial is scheduled to be finished in the fall of 2008.
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