Shanksville, Pa. -- Under a brilliant midday sun, a simple ceremony today marked the groundbreaking for a permanent national memorial on the site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, killing everyone aboard.

"In honor of the 40 American heroes who gave there lives here -- Let's roll!" said U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as he dug a silver shovel into a mound of dirt.

He echoed the famous words of Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer before passengers and crewmembers attempted to retake the plane from terrorists.

More than eight years after the terrorist attacks, work is ready to begin on a 2,200-acre park in Somerset County, which already has a temporary memorial that has become a pilgrimage site for tens of thousand of people.

Federal officials have set Sept. 11, 2011, as the deadline to finish the first phase of the project.

"We made it," said Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93, whose brother Edward was a passenger on the plane. "We made it -- not to our goal, not to the finish line, certainly not to any semblance of closure. But nevertheless we made it to the next milestone on our journey."

The memorial project has encountered many obstacles, but momentum started to build this year when the federal government reached agreements with all of the landowners of properties needed to build the park.

Today, Mr. Salazar announced that Arrow Kinsley of York, Pa., will be the principle contractor for the first construction phase. It will include a plaza that allows the public to view the site where the plane crashed, known as the "sacred ground." It will also include 40 stones with the names of passengers and crew etched in marble.

During the ceremony, a group of 40 relatives of the passengers, elected officials and first responders plunged shovels into the ground.

Four younger relatives stood at the front of the group: Justin Nacke, nephew of passenger Louis Nacke; Sarah Wainio, sister of passenger Elizabeth Wainio; and Campbell and Peyton Peterson, whose grandparents, Donald and Jean Peterson, were on the flight.

"This has been a long time coming," said Justin Nacke, 21, of Baltimore.

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.