9/11 Memorial a Testament to Family Grit

The first national memorial to the victims of 9/11 will be dedicated at the Pentagon today and it was the hard work of grieving families who made it possible, the Washington Post writes. Funding assumptions in the aftermath of the tragic attacks fell apart by the time construction began—and it took a determined effort by those who lost loved ones to ensure the memorial was built.

The director of the Pentagon Memorial Fund, who lost his brother in the attacks, took a personal approach as donations dried up and he traveled to corporate boardrooms across the country in a plea for funds. The memorial's 184 steel benches, one for every victim of the attack on the Pentagon, stand on the building's western side—exactly where the plane hit exactly seven years ago.
(More September 11 stories.)