The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial: A Self-Guided Walk of Remembrance

(7 reviews)

Washington, D.C. audio tour: The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial: A Self-Guided Walk of Remembrance

This is an indoor tour

Washington, D.C.

The United States

$5.99

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About the Tour

The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial in Arlington, Virginia is one of the nation’s most intimate and architecturally meaningful memorials dedicated to the events of September 11, 2001.

This self-guided audio walking tour offers an exploration of the Pentagon Memorial, which tells its story through design rather than relying on monuments or heroic imagery. The tour helps you learn how to “read” that design so you can engage with the space more deeply, while giving you the freedom to pause, observe, and reflect at your own pace.

The tour starts in the parking area in front of the Pentagon building. It places the memorial within its broader physical and historical context, drawing attention to its relationship with the Pentagon building, nearby roadways, and the everyday activity that continues around it.

On this 45-minute tour, you’ll have a chance to:

Learn how the memorial’s design uses space, orientation, and landscape to carry meaning
Trace the flight path of American Airlines Flight 77 and understand its influence on the memorial’s layout
Encounter features such as the Locator Stone, Age Wall, and Zero Line as architectural elements shaping the experience
Spend time with individual benches and the lives they honor, at your own pace
Discover how families of those lost contributed to shaping the memorial’s design and its underlying intent

Designed for independent travelers who want more than a brief visit or surface-level interpretation, this experience invites you to move slowly through the memorial and attend closely to how its design communicates meaning. As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, many travelers seek experiences that encourage reflection on national memory, civic responsibility, and shared history. This tour offers a contemporary perspective on those themes through a site shaped by collaboration with victims’ families and a commitment to individualized remembrance.

Ideal for educators, thoughtful visitors, and those interested in public history and commemorative landscapes, this self-guided audio walk is paced for reflection and designed to be experienced quietly and respectfully. You’ll leave not with conclusions, but with a deeper understanding of the memorial — and perhaps with a name, a story, or a moment that stays with you.

PLEASE NOTE: This tour is listed on VoiceMap as an “Indoor” tour due to cell signal limitations around the Pentagon, which require manual audio playback. However, the memorial grounds are located completely outdoors. Please check the weather in advance and dress for current conditions. Headphones are recommended to support clear listening and a respectful experience for other visitors.

Tour Producer

Amy McMahon

6 tours

For travelers who want more than directions and highlights, these audio walking tours offer a deeper way of engaging with place. They invite listeners to slow down, read landscapes carefully, and explore how history, design, and human choices shape what we see.

With a background spanning archaeology, international education, curriculum design, and professional guiding, Amy approaches sites as layered texts rather than static landmarks—places shaped by intention, conflict, and change over time. Her tours focus on process as much as outcome: how memorials are conceived and built, how cities evolve over time, and how meaning is constructed through space, symbolism, and use. Rather than delivering a single authoritative narrative, she provides context and interpretive tools that encourage close observation, reflection, and independent thought.

She has spent more than two decades working across the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, including sixteen years based in Egypt as an educator and school leader. She has participated in archaeological excavations in Egypt, Israel, and the United States, supervised field schools, and translated academic research into accessible public history. As a certified tour director and licensed guide in New York City and Washington, DC, she has led adult and student groups through historically complex environments, balancing thoughtful interpretation with the realities of movement, logistics, and place.

Her VoiceMap tours are designed for curious listeners who value depth, nuance, and context—people interested not only in what they are seeing, but why it looks the way it does, and how our understanding of place continues to evolve over time.

Preview Location

Location 8

Reading the Benches

Just a few yards in we’re reaching the first row. I’d like to introduce you to the person being honored here. Her name is Dana Falkenburg.

Take a moment to notice the bench itself. Unlike a traditional marker, it rises gently from the ground, sloping and extending outward. ... Just a few yards in we’re reaching the first row. I’d like to introduce you to the person being honored here. Her name is Dana Falkenburg.

Take a moment to notice the bench itself. Unlike a traditional marker, it rises gently from the ground, sloping and extending outward. Dana’s name is carved into the edge of the open end.

When we stood at the Zero Line, I described the way it stretched between the Age Wall and the low border wall following the trajectory of the plane. Each of the rows of benches does the same. And where the row meets the walls, there are plaques inscribed with the birth year of the people who have benches within that particular row.

With that knowledge, I’ll ask you to follow the line of Dana’s bench to where it reaches the border wall and look for the year that she was born in. Can you see it? It reads, 1998. Take a moment with that number. Dana was three years old.

Let’s return to Dana’s bench.

As you walk back to it, place yourself in front of her carved name, and look beneath it, into the narrow channel of flowing water. You’ll see additional names carved into the metal below. These belong to Dana’s parents, Leslie and Charles, and her sister, Zoe. The Falkenburg family was traveling together that morning, on their way to begin a new life abroad, when the plane was hijacked.

Each member of the Falkenburg family has their own bench within the memorial. Zoe’s bench is in the next row. Leslie and Charles also have benches of their own. And beneath each one, the names of their family members appear again in the water—linking them, even as each life is remembered individually. This arrangement reflects a wish shared by many families: that those who were lost together not be separated in memory.

For now, stay here with Dana’s bench for a moment.

Notice how the water moves beneath it. Notice how the tree branches arch gracefully over the space. And notice how the memorial asks you to learn about a life not through a single inscription, but through movement, time, and attention.

When you’re ready to move further in, walk to the second row. It also has only one bench; it’s for Dana’s sister, Zoe. I’ll meet you there. Read More

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Major Landmarks

The Pentagon
Air Force Memorial
Arlington National Cemetery
National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
N Rotary Rd, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
Total distance

0m
Final location
N Rotary Rd, Arlington, VA 22202, USA
Distance back to start location

0m

Directions to Starting Point

The tour's first location is located within the general area outside the Pentagon Building. There is a map included which depicts the recommended spots to listen to each location. The suggested time to listen to the first "welcome" track is at any point as you reach the area around the Pentagon Building.

If you are arriving by car, the only public parking available is a free lot at 880 Army Navy Drive. To reach the memorial from the lot look for the pedestrian tunnel (which runs underneath the highway), and then walk across the Pentagon's Employee parking lot. The walk to the tour's starting point is approximately 10 min.

If you are arriving via public transportation, all bus routes and Metro lines converge at the Pentagon Transit Center (PTC) located on the east side of the Pentagon Building. The walk to the tour's starting point is approximately 5 min. Keep the pentagon building on your right side as you walk.

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Tips

Places to stop along the way

Other than the outdoor memorial space, the Pentagon is not open to the general public. However, guided internal tours are available to US citizens with advance reservations (90 days is recommended), booked through the official portal and requiring security clearance. There are pubic bathrooms and a drinking water fountain within the memorial space. For additional publicly accessible historic sites in the area: the Pentagon is located very close to both the Air Force Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. For food, drink and shopping it is situated within walking distance of the Pentagon City Mall.

Best time of day

The memorial is open to the public 24 hours. Day and night visits each have their own unique beauty. Daylight allows for more opportunities to see the surrounding area. After sunset the internal memorial lighting provides an added layer of serenity.

Precautions

Photography is not allowed in the areas outside the Pentagon and there are signs that highlight this in the walk up to the memorial space. Once you enter the memorial, cameras are allowed.

All of the walkways leading to the main entrance of the memorial require extra attention to vehicle traffic.

Cell phone networks are weaker within the grounds surrounding the pentagon, so be aware that calls and internet access will not be reliable. Because of the likely network limitations, the tour's author is recommending that you access the memorial's official website (PentagonMemorial.org) and have a specific page (Meet the Heroes) open on your device prior to arriving on site. It will be referenced during the tour and use of it will be encouraged during a portion of your exploration of the memorial.

Regarding accessibility issues: be aware that while the bulk of the grounds have flat and paved surfaces, the center portion of the memorial includes a gravely surface.

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“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”