More than 1.2 million people from all over the globe have visited the temporary memorial at the Flight 93 crash site in Stonycreek, Somerset County. The National Park Service is constructing a $60 million national memorial, the first phase of which is expected to be completed by Sept. 11 of next year -- the 10th anniversary of the crash. Construction is expected to be wrapped up several years after that.

The cost of the memorial is being split evenly between taxpayer dollars and private donations. A new initiative is under way, including public service messages, to encourage donations at www.honorflight93.org.

Jeff Reinbold, National Park Service site manager, said more than 60,000 people have donated to the effort and many of them have visited the site.

"We get a lot of people who will never go to the Pentagon or Manhattan, so they come here to pay their respects," said Mr. Reinbold, of Upper St. Clair. "I think a lot of people feel a sense of ownership of this and are anxious to see the memorial built."

To preserve the rural character of the area, he said, the memorial is expected to be more like a Civil War battlefield site than a typical memorial.

More than 1,000 entries were received from 48 states and 27 countries in a public design competition in 2004 and 2005. The winning design, called "A common field one day. A field of honor forever," was submitted by Paul Murdoch Architects of Los Angeles.

The memorial is expected eventually to encompass about 2,200 acres. Its construction is planned in these phases:

Scheduled completion: Sept. 11, 2011

The final resting place of the passengers and crew of Flight 93 will remain untouched and preserved as a national cemetery, accessible only to family members. The surrounding field, in a bowl shape, will be graded to define a Field of Honor, gently sloping down to the crash site.

A ring road circling the field will be built to provide access to the site, along with a new parking area and arrival court, where visitors will be greeted by some of the same volunteer ambassadors who now work at the temporary memorial.

A Memorial Plaza, engraved with the names of the passengers and crew, will be built in front of the crash site for public viewing, and an access road from Route 30 to the ring road will be completed.

Scheduled completion: 2014

Large memorial walls will frame the sky where Flight 93 once flew. The height of the walls -- 40 to 50 feet -- will approximate the altitude of the plane as it passed overhead.

Visitors will pass through an entry portal for the first view of the crash site and the Field of Honor. A new visitor center with interpretive exhibits will be built between the walls. It will include some of the estimated 40,000 items that have been left by visitors to the crash site.

Encircling the Field of Honor will be a tree-lined walkway, flanked by 40 memorial tree groves.

No scheduled completion date: A 93-foot-high Tower of Voices will be built among the rings of trees to serve as a landmark marking the gateway to the park. Hanging from the tower will be 40 wind chimes, representing each of the passengers and crew.

-- Source: National Park Service

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.