Memorial for United Flight 93 being dedicated Saturday

A memorial for United Flight 93 is being dedicated Saturday on the rural Pennsylvania field where the hijacked plane crashed on September 11, 2001.

Hundreds of victims' relatives are expected at a ceremony to remember the 40 passengers and crew members who died. The ceremony will also mark the beginning of construction on the $62 million memorial.

Vice President Joe Biden and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are among the dignitaries expected to attend, the Associated Press reports. Grammy Award-winning musician Sarah McLachlan is scheduled to perform.

On Friday, family members of those who died on Flight 93 visited the site, read the guestbook and viewed the many mementos left by people from all over the world who have come to pay their respects.

Relatives shed some tears, but they also celebrated the spirit of the guestbook — a rare feeling that people from vastly different walks of life had come together.

"Coming here is more of a celebratory thing. She's been memorialized," said Lorne Lyles, whose wife, CeeCee Ross Lyles, was a flight attendant. "Just to see the outpouring from all over the world is touching. You really do have some caring people in the world."

On Friday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said that while $52 million has been raised for the memorial, $10 million more is needed to build a visitors center and to finish landscaping.

“If not for the heroes onboard United 93, who challenged the hijackers and forced them to abandon their plan, it is quite possible that the Capitol, and the people working inside it, might not be here today,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a news release last week, announcing that he planned to attend the ceremony.