The "Tower of Voices" is a 93-foot tall musical monument situated at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, honoring the 40 passengers and crew members who perished on United Airlines Flight 93 on September 11, 2001; it includes 40 wind chimes, each symbolizing one individual, designed to create a "living memorial in sound" through the chimes activated by wind, representing the voices of those who died on the flight.
The Tower of Voices acts as both a visual and audible tribute to the bravery of the forty passengers and crew of United Flight 93. On September 09, 2018, Flight 93 National Memorial held a dedication event to finalize the last phase of construction and complete the permanent memorial. The chimes were installed and dedicated on September 10, 2020.
The tower project was built from 2017 to 2018, with the project dedication on September 9, 2018. Funding for the design and construction of the project came from private donations to the National Park Foundation and the Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial.
There are no other chime structures similar to this worldwide. The shape and orientation of the tower are intended to enhance airflow through the tower walls to reach the interior chime chamber. The chime system is created using music theory to determine a mathematically developed range of frequencies necessary to produce a distinct musical note connected with each chime. The utilized music theory ensures that the sound generated by individual chimes is musically compatible with the sound produced by the other chimes in the tower. The goal is to establish a collection of forty tones (voices) that can convey through consonance the tranquility and dignity of the site while also, through dissonance, evoking the event that sanctified the location.
The tower stands approximately ninety-three feet tall from the base to the top with various height variations. The Tower's cross section is a “C” shape with a fifteen-foot outside diameter and an eleven-foot inside diameter. The “C” shape permits sound to reflect outwards from the open side in a fan-shaped pattern. The chimes will be hung at least twenty feet above the main plaza and will be suspended from the interior walls of the tower up to the top.
The tower walls will be made of precast concrete segments connected by connectors. The chimes will consist of polished aluminum tubes ranging from eight to sixteen inches in diameter and about five to ten feet long. The size of each chime is based on the musical note and corresponding frequency it is designed to produce. Chimes of this size and scale do not currently exist globally. The chimes are wind-activated and will include internal strikers connected to sails extending from the bottom of each chime.
The tower is encircled by circular layers of white pines and deciduous vegetation. The circular plantings can be seen as echoing “sound waves” from the Tower, referencing the auditory characteristics of the chimes contained within. A straightforward paved pathway connects the tower to the parking lot. A more extensive, winding crushed stone trail meanders through the trees and provides visitors with a different route to the tower. All other landscaped sections of the project will feature a native wildflower seed blend comparable to other landscaped regions of the park.
