FORT MEYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. (Sept. 11, 2015) -- For most of us, it does not take a date in September to remember the devastation of Sept. 11, 2001 when hijacked commercial airplanes crashed into New York City's Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
We may talk to a colleague who lost her spouse at the Pentagon, and we remember; we pay extra attention to first responders, getting to know them by name, and we remember; we meet a survivor -- and listening to their story -- we remember. Memories of Sept. 11, 2001 seem to be just under the surface every day, but the 9/11 attacks have never defined us. The Pentagon itself is a reminder of our collective strength: Sixty years to the day after the initial Pentagon groundbreaking Sept. 11, 1941, it was attacked.
In 1941, three shifts worked 24/7 building the Pentagon, wedge by wedge. Some 1,000 architects worked at blueprints to stay ahead of 14,000 construction workers. After 9/11, Pentagon renovation workers took down the damaged portion of the building in one month and one day, and reconstruction began Nov. 14, 2001. About 600 workers a day, working in three shifts, 24/7, rebuilt new five-story walls where ashes had been at the site dubbed the Phoenix Project, and a dedication ceremony was held Sept. 11, 2002.
See more information at https://pentagontours.osd.mil
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