The Pentagon
In the 1930s the War
Department was scattered throughout dozens of buildings in Virginia, Maryland and the District. In May 1941, the Secretary of War told the
President that the Department needed a central location. Congress authorized a new headquarters for
the War Department and plans were drawn up.
Arlington Farms, between Arlington
National Cemetery
and Memorial Bridge was selected as the site. The building was designed to conform to the
dimensions and terrain of the site. In
short, it was designed to be a pentagon to fit the space.
When presented
with the plan, President Roosevelt liked the design but hated the site, which
would have impaired the view of Washington
from Arlington National Cemetery.
Consequently the design remained, but a new site was found. Ground was broken on September 11, 1941, less than two
months prior to America’s
entry into World War II. The building
was officially dedicated and ready for occupancy on January 15, 1943. Design and construction of such a building would
normally have taken four years
Minimizing the use of steel because of the
exigencies of World War II, the Pentagon was built as a reinforced concrete
structure, using 680,000 tons of sand, dredged from the Potomac River. Army engineers avoided using critical war materials whenever possible. They
substituted concrete ramps and stairways for passenger elevators and used
concrete drainpipes rather than metal pipes. They eliminated bronze doors,
copper ornaments, and metal toilet partitions, and avoided any unnecessary
ornamentation.
The Pentagon is the world's largest office building by floor area, housing
some twenty six thousand military and civilian employees. The building has five sides, five floors
above ground, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 miles
of corridors. It covers twenty six
acres.
Exactly sixty years after the
groundbreaking ceremony, the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred. Hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed
into the west side of the Pentagon, killing almost two hundred people both
on-board the plane and inside the building. The plane penetrated three of the Pentagon’s
five rings. The task of rebuilding the damaged section
of the Pentagon was given the name, the "Phoenix Project", and set a goal
of having the outermost offices in the damaged section occupied again by
September 11, 2002. The first Pentagon tenants whose offices had been damaged
during the attack began moving back in on August 15, 2002, nearly a month ahead of
schedule.
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