SHANKSVILLE, Pa. — Debby Borza stood before a wall of photos of 40 people who died here on Sept. 11, 2001, and gently tapped her daughter’s face on a computer touch screen, not knowing exactly what to expect.

“What do they have to say about my dear, sweet daughter?” she said, her face brightening as the screen filled with photos of Deora Frances Bodley, 20, at her high school graduation, working as a volunteer reading tutor, visiting Paris – an album of a promising young life cut short when four al-Qaida terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 14 years ago Friday.

Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93, stands before a wall featuring photos of those killed on Flight 93. Felt’s brother Edward was among the crash victims. Washington Post photo by Michael S. Williamson

Borza was among family members given an early look at the $26 million Flight 93 National Memorial Visitor Center that opened this week, honoring the legacy of the 9/11 attacks on America and the courage of 40 passengers and crew who fought back against their hijackers, preventing the plane from hitting its presumed target, the U.S. Capitol.

“It’s important to me that the visitor sees what these 40 people took on, to take a stand for freedom, to take the kind of stand that cost their lives,” said Borza, whose daughter was the youngest female passenger on Flight 93. “Maybe there will be some special thing they see about Deora that will inspire them.”

As Americans mark the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, thousands will gather at long-established monuments at Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington and at other sites honoring the nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives in the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history. But those who come to the national monument in Shanksville, to honor Bodley and the passengers who kept 9/11 from becoming even more catastrophic, will find a work still in progress.

The stunning concrete and glass visitors center and museum are finally open, but landscaping and other finishing touches are still underway. A nearly 100-foot bell tower with 40 chimes is scheduled to be built in the next two years.

The center presents the events of Sept. 11, 2001, as they unfolded that morning. The first display visitors encounter features that morning’s Wall Street Journal, photos of local students entering an elementary school, a diagram showing that there were 4,500 planes in the air when Flight 93 took off at 8:42 a.m. from Newark on its way to San Francisco.

The next display features video clips of a stunned Katie Couric telling “Today” show viewers that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. There follows video of the second plane hitting, the South Tower collapsing, the voice of the late newscaster Peter Jennings saying, “My God.”

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