USS Arizona Memorial Center Slowly Sinking

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The USS Arizona Memorial's visitors center was designed to accommodate 750,000 people a year when it was built in 1980, but today it's jammed with crowds more than twice that big — and it's literally bursting at the seams.

Portions of the shoreside building and plaza commemorating the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor have settled as much as 30 inches and are still slowly sinking, and the concrete structure is cracking.

"Our office space is crammed, our visitor space is crammed, capacity is a significant issue on all fronts," said Douglas Lentz, the National Park Service superintendent in charge of the visitors center. "Then you've got the structural integrity of the building."

Crowds at the memorial have grown over the years as interest in Pearl Harbor has increased, fueled in part by Hollywood's sustained interest in World War II, including a blockbuster movie about the attack. The shock of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 drew comparisons to Pearl Harbor and sparked interest among a new generation.

A total of 2,390 people were killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack that drew the United States into World War II.

The Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund is working to raise $34 million to replace the visitors center, the starting point for ferry rides across the harbor to the white memorial that straddles the sunken Arizona, which still contains the remains of 1,177 sailors.

The group — whose honorary chairmen include actor Tom Hanks and Sens. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii and John McCain, R-Ariz. — wants to raise enough money to break ground for a new center in three to five years. Mathew Sgan, the fund senior vice president, said the group is very pleased with its progress and is soliciting corporate donations.

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