# Ground breaks on a 9/11 Pentagon education center

> Twenty-five years after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, families finally broke ground on a place to tell the story.
- Title: Ground breaks on a 9/11 Pentagon education center | Shortify
- Summary: Twenty-five years after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, families finally broke ground on a place to tell the story. The Pentagon's 184 dead are getting a…
- Keywords: 9/11, pentagon, memorial, arlington, museum, news, local, Ground, breaks, education, center, Valleynewslive
- Source: Valleynewslive — https://valleynewslive.com/2026/09/12/pentagon-memorial-breaks-ground-new-visitor-education-center
- Published: 2026-09-12T20:40:08.002+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: 9/11, pentagon, memorial, arlington, museum, news, local
## One day after the anniversary
The 9/11 Pentagon Memorial broke ground on a Visitor Education Center in Arlington, Virginia, the day after the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
## A brother among the 184
Jim Laychak lost his brother Dave when hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, one of 184 people killed there.

> After Dave died, I began thinking, 'how will we remember this?'
## What the center will hold
Exhibits will walk guests through the attacks with a historical timeline and show how the country responded in the days after.
## Context before the benches
The building is designed to work with the memorial grounds, so visitors learn the history first, then walk out to the bench placed for each victim.
## Not just New York
Sen. Mark Warner argued the Pentagon and Pennsylvania losses deserve the same place in public memory as the towers.

> There was a tragedy in New York, but there was also a tragedy here at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania
## A first shovel, not a finish
Construction has a long way to go. Breaking ground is only step one, arriving a quarter century after the attack it commemorates.

> We want people to remember what happened here. We want people to remember our loved ones
## Key takeaway

The Pentagon's 184 dead are getting a building that explains what happened to them, not just benches that name them.