The Pentagon / Pentagon Memorial050

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense and is also the world's largest low-rise office building. Guided tours of the Pentagon are free and are available to schools, educational organizations, and other select groups by reservation only. Tours are conducted Monday through Friday during normal working hours.

The Pentagon Memorial contains 184 memorial units, each of which are dedicated to an individual victim by its unique placement within the collective field. The field is organized as a timeline of the victims' ages, moving from the youngest, three-year-old Dana Falkenberg to the oldest, John D. Yamnicky, 71.

Each memorial unit is specifically positioned in order to distinguish victims on board American Airlines Flight 77 from victims within the Pentagon. The memorial units representing the 59 lives lost on American Airlines Flight 77 are positioned so that a visitor to the park will face the sky when reading the name of the victim to whom that unit is dedicated. When standing at a memorial unit dedicated to a victim who was inside the Pentagon, the visitor sees the victim's name and the Pentagon in the same view. The simple but elegant memorial units are at once a glowing light pool, a cantilevered bench, and a place for permanent inscription of each victim's name. The benches are surrounded by maple trees to provide color and shade.