The tower in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, was dedicated Sunday.
Neither rain nor cold kept away 9/11 mourners in Pennsylvania, where a tower of wind chimes was dedicated Sunday to the heroes of United Flight 93.
In a field amid rolling hills, the 93-foot edifice was dedicated to the passengers on board who, after learning terrorists had moments before hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, decided to fight the terrorists who hijacked their jetliner.
The tower now holds eight wind chimes, but will eventually hold 40, one for each traveler and crew member on the plane.
Architect Paul Murdoch said he wanted visitors the crash site to have an emotional reaction when they come to the place where the flight slammed into earth after passengers and crew attacked the terrorists.
"The first thing I want them to do is feel," Murdoch said. "Whatever they feel. The tower itself is quite heroic; it's a monumental piece, it's meant to be heroic. But the sounds are not booming chimes. They're meant to be actually quite subtle and intimate, so that people can be there and have a very personal experience, whatever it is for them."
The choice of chimes was due, in part, to the large number of windmills in the area, Murdoch told CBS News.
Since the 9/11 terror attacks 17 years ago, authorities have said the intended target of the hijackers on Flight 93 was probably the U.S. Capitol.
Gordon Felt, whose brother was on board, was one of the faithful on hand Sunday as a gentle rain fell.
"We don't look at the passengers and crews as victims; we look at them as heroes," he said. "Obviously they wanted to live. But they also knew that in order to try to survive they had to fight. And in doing so, they lost their lives. But they averted a far greater tragedy that would've been inflicted on our country."
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