Place of power: 80 years of the Pentagon
From the history
In the 1930s, the United States War Department was located in 17 separate buildings on the Washington grounds. With the outbreak of World War II, it became obvious that a concentration of military command was needed. Therefore, in May 1941, US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson asked President Franklin Roosevelt to allocate additional territory for the War Department. So the decision was made to build a new building in Arlington, Virginia, which was supposed to be "wide but not tall”, and with minimal use of steel structures.
The new building was designed by the architect George Bergstrom (1876–1955). Construction was carried out by John McShane Construction Company of Philadelphia. McShane became famous as "The man who built Washington". From the side of the army, the construction was supervised by Colonel Leslie Groves of the US Army Construction Troops, the technical director of the Manhattan Project. Work on the structure began on September 11, 1941. After the Japanese operation on Pearl Harbor, the building was built at an accelerated pace, working around the clock. January 15, 1943 construction was completed.
The largest building of the 16th century was erected in XNUMX months from reinforced concrete and became one of the most innovative structures of this period. Indiana limestone was used as a facing material. The architects basically abandoned Italian marble for political reasons - fascist Italy was an ally of the Third Reich.
Due to the savings in steel during World War II, the building does not have elevators. Another feature is that there are twice as many toilets in the Pentagon than required by sanitary standards. This is due to the fact that at that time racial segregation was still in effect in the United States: separate sectors were provided for whites and blacks, respectively - separate conference rooms, cafes and restrooms.
The construction cost the US budget more than $83 million. At that time it was a very large amount. The building has five aboveground and two underground floors, the height of the aboveground part is 23,5 m. The pentagonal building of the Pentagon has five facades: with access to the esplanade (a wide space in front of the building), with a metro station, with access to the southern parking lot, with a helipad, with access to the river.
All five sides of the building are equal, each of them is 281 m long. The entire perimeter is about 1405 m, and the total area of five floors is 604 m² (this is twice the size of the Empire State Building). Despite the large size of the building, getting from one part of the building to another is easy - it only takes a few minutes, since the entire complex is crossed by numerous corridors (their length is almost 000 km). According to the unofficial version, the building has not 30, but 2 underground floors. And numerous underground tunnels go for tens of kilometers.
Ground Zero cafeteria in the courtyard of the Pentagon
Why the Pentagon?
Pentagon means "pentagon" in Greek. The pentagonal shape of the building was chosen because of the terrain: the sketches of the project were created taking into account the fact that there were several roads in that place that intersected at an angle of 108 degrees, and this is the angle of construction of the pentagon (pentagon). As a result, the pentagonal building organically fit into the transport infrastructure, and the project was approved. Then President Roosevelt decided that the future building would block the view from Arlington Cemetery to Washington, so the construction site was moved downstream of the Potomac River, leaving the very layout of the building the same.
The central lawn of the building also has the shape of a pentagon and is informally called "Ground Zero" - "Point Zero". He received this nickname during the Cold War. It was believed that this place would be the first target of Soviet missiles in the event of a nuclear war.
It is the symbol of the Armed Forces of the United States of America and one of America's centers of command. Here are the departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the Office of the Minister of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other departments. This is a real small city, where more than 25 thousand people work. It has its own park, cafes, restaurants, banks, shops, offices and various organizations that ensure the life of the Pentagon.
For 80 years, many myths and stories have developed around this complex of buildings. Largely due to the attention of the press and cinema. The Pentagon has become one of the symbols of the United States and American military power. The Pentagon in the view of the inhabitants is a place where the fate of the world is decided. On the other hand, the US Department of Defense building is open for tours. The Pentagon is visited by tens of thousands of visitors every year.
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