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The Pentagon
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The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.
Designed by the American architect George Bergstrom (1876 – 1955), and built by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, general contractor John McShain, the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, after ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941.
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Encyclopedia
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.
Designed by the American architect George Bergstrom (1876 – 1955), and built by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, general contractor John McShain, the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, after ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941. General Brehon Somervell provided the major motive power behind the project; Colonel Leslie Groves (whose administrative ability, drive, and forcefulness led to his nomination to head the Manhattan Project in 1942) and Major Clarence Renshaw were responsible for overseeing the project for the Army.
The Pentagon was the world's largest office building by floor area from its completion until January 2008. The Palazzo resort in Las Vegas, Nevada is larger by a margin of about 35,580 square meters. The Pentagon houses approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel. It has five sides, five floors above ground (plus two basement levels), and five ring corridors per floor with a total of of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000 m²) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon and informally known as "ground zero", a nickname originating during the Cold War and based on the presumption that the Soviet Union would target one or more nuclear missiles at this central location.
On September 11, 2001, the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing 125 people who worked on that side of the building.
History
Construction
Prior to the construction of the Pentagon, the United States Department of War was headquartered in the Munitions Building, which was a temporary structure erected during World War I along Constitution Avenue on the National Mall. The War Department was spread out in additional temporary buildings on National Mall, as well as dozens of other buildings in Washington, D.C., as well as Maryland and Virginia. In the late 1930s, a new War Department Building was constructed at 21st and C Streets in Foggy Bottom, but upon completion, the new building did not solve the department's space problem, and ended up being used by the Department of State. When World War II broke out in Europe, the War Department rapidly expanded with anticipation of being drawn into the conflict. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson found the situation unacceptable, with the Munitions Building overcrowded and the department spread out.
Stimson told President Franklin D. Roosevelt in May 1941 that the War Department needed additional space. On July 17, 1941, a congressional hearing took place, organized by Virginia congressman Clifton Woodrum, regarding proposals for new War Department buildings. Woodrum pressed Brigadier General Eugene Reybold, who was representing the War Department at the hearing, for an "overall solution" to the department's "space problem", rather than building yet more temporary buildings. Reybold agreed to report back to the congressman within five days. The War Department called upon its construction chief, General Brehon Somervell to come up with a plan.
Government officials agreed that the War Department building should be constructed across the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia. Requirements for the new building were that it be no more than four stories tall, and that it use a minimal amount of steel. The requirements meant that instead of rising vertically, the building would be sprawling over a large area. Possible sites for the building included Arlington Farm, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, and the obsolete Washington Hoover Airport site. The Pentagon shape of the building was a result of the shape of Arlington Farms, which was the site originally chosen, however President Roosevelt ended up selecting the Hoover Airport site, as he did not want the new building to obstruct the view of Washington, D.C. from Arlington Cemetery. But, the building retained its pentagonal shape because a major redesign at that stage would have been costly and because Roosevelt liked the design. Freed of the constraints of the asymmetric Arlington Farms site, however, it was modified into a regular pentagon.
On July 28, 1941, Congress authorized funding for a new Department of War building in Arlington, which would house the entire department under one roof, and President Roosevelt officially approved of the Hoover Airport site on September 2, 1941. While the project went through the approval process in late July 1941, Somervell selected the contractors, including John McShain, Inc. of Philadelphia, which had built Washington National Airport, the Jefferson Memorial, and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, along with Wise Contracting Company, Inc. and Doyle and Russell — both from Virginia. In addition to the Hoover Airport site and other government-owned land, construction of the Pentagon required an additional , which were acquired at a cost of $2.2 million. The Hell's Bottom neighborhood, a slum with numerous pawnshops, factories, approximately 150 homes, and other buildings around Columbia Pike, was also cleared to make way for the Pentagon. Later on, of land were transferred to Arlington National Cemetery and to Fort Myer, leaving for the Pentagon.
Contracts totaling $31,100,000 were finalized with McShain and the other contractors on September 11, 1941, and ground was broken for the Pentagon the same day. Among the design requirements, Somervell required the structural design to accommodate floor loads of up to 150 pounds per square feet, which was done in case the building became a records storage facility at some point in the future, after World War II. A minimal amount of steel was used in construction, which was in short supply during World War II. Instead, the Pentagon was built as a reinforced concrete structure, using 680,000 tons of sand, dredged from the Potomac River, and a lagoon was created beneath the Pentagon's river entrance. To minimize steel, concrete ramps were built rather than install elevators. Indiana limestone was used for the building's facade.
Architectural and structural design work for the Pentagon proceeded simultaneously with construction, with initial drawings provided in early October 1941, and most of the design work completed by June 1, 1942. At times, the construction work got ahead of the design, with different materials used than what was specified in the plans. Pressure to speed up design and construction intensified after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, with Somervell demanding that one million square feet of space at the Pentagon be available for occupation by April 1, 1942. David J. Witmer replaced Bergstrom as chief architect on April 11, 1942, after Bergstorm resigned due to charges, unrelated to the Pentagon project, of improper conduct while he was president of the American Institute of Architects.
The soil conditions of the Pentagon site, located on the Potomac River floodplain, presented challenges to engineers, as did the varying elevations across the site, which ranged from 10 to above sea level. Two retaining walls were built to compensate for the elevation variations, and cast-in-place (Franki) piles were used to deal with the soil conditions. Construction of the Pentagon was completed in approximately sixteen months at a total cost of $83 million.
Protests
The Pentagon became a focus for protests against the Vietnam War during the late 1960s. A group of 2,500 women, organized by Women Strike for Peace, demonstrated outside of Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara's office at the Pentagon on February 15, 1967. In May 1967, a group of 20 demonstrators held a sit-in outside the Joint Chiefs of Staff's office, which lasted four days before they were arrested. In one of the better known incidents, on October 21, 1967, some 35,000 anti-war protesters organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, gathered for a demonstration at the Defense Department (the "March on the Pentagon"), where they were confronted by some 2,500 armed soldiers. Abbie Hoffman declared the group's intention of levitating the Pentagon by means of meditation, wobbling it once in mid-air in order to exorcise evil spirits. On May 19, 1972, the American radicals known as the Weather Underground Organization successfully planted and exploded a bomb in a fourth-floor women's restroom in the Pentagon, in retaliation for the Nixon administration's bombing attacks on Hanoi during the final stages of the Vietnam War.
On March 17, 2007, an estimated 4,000 to 15,000 protested the Iraq War. The protesters marched from the Lincoln Memorial, down Washington Boulevard to the Pentagon’s north parking lot. Estimates of actual protesters varies significantly because the march area is in the area of the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial, and Arlington; and a high number of tourists curiously attracted to the march may have been included in the tallies.
Renovation
Since 1998, the Pentagon has been undergoing a major renovation, known as the Pentagon Renovation Program. This program, scheduled to be completed in 2010, involves the complete gutting and reconstruction of the entire building in phases to bring the building up to modern standards, removing asbestos, improving security and providing greater efficiency for Pentagon tenants. Recently, the process of sealing all of the building's windows began.
As originally built, most Pentagon office space consisted of open bays which spanned an entire ring. These offices used cross-ventilation from operable windows instead of air conditioning for cooling. Gradually, bays were subdivided into private offices with many using window air conditioning units. When renovations are completed, the new space will include a return to open office bays, with a new Universal Space Plan of standardized office furniture and partitions developed by Studios Architecture.
September 11 attacks
On September 11, 2001, a team of five al-Qaeda affiliated hijackers took control of American Airlines Flight 77, and deliberately crashed it into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. EDT as part of the September 11 attacks. All 64 people on the airliner were killed as well as 125 people who were in the building. The impact of the plane severely damaged the structure of the building and caused its partial collapse.
At the time of the attacks the Pentagon was under renovation and several offices were unoccupied, resulting in fewer casualties. Contractors already involved with the renovation were given the added task of rebuilding the sections damaged in the attacks. This additional project was named the "Phoenix Project", and was charged with having the outermost offices of the damaged section occupied by September 11, 2002.
When the damaged section of the Pentagon was rebuilt, a small indoor memorial and chapel were included, located at the point of impact. For the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, a memorial of 184 beams of light shone up from the center courtyard of the Pentagon, one light for each victim of the attack. In addition, an American flag is hung each year on the side of the Pentagon damaged in the attacks, and the side of the building is illuminated at night with blue lights. After the attacks, plans were developed for an outdoor memorial, with construction underway in 2006. The Pentagon Memorial, which consists of a park with 184 benches, according to the victims' ages, from 3 to 71, was opened to the public on September 11, 2008.
Layout
The Pentagon building spans , and includes an additional as a central courtyard. The River Entrance, which features a portico projecting out , is located on the northeast side, overlooking the lagoon and facing Washington. There is a stepped terrace on the River Entrance that leads down to the lagoon, and a landing dock which was used until the late 1960s to ferry personnel between the Bolling Air Force Base and the Pentagon. On the north side of the building, the Mall Entrance, which also features a portico, leads out to a long terrace that is used for ceremonies. The main entrance for visitors is located on the southeast side, where the Pentagon Metro station and the bus station are located. There also is also a concourse on the southeast side of the second floor of the building, which contains a mini-shopping mall. The Pentagon's south parking lot is located on the southwest side of the Pentagon, and the west side of the Pentagon faces Washington Boulevard. The building contains no marble because Italy, which was the main source of marble during World War II, was an enemy country to the US.
The concentric rings are designated from the center out as "A" through "E" (with addition "F" and "G" in the basement). "E" Ring offices are the only ones with outside views and are generally occupied by senior officials. Office numbers go clockwise around each of the rings, and have two parts: a nearest-corridor number (1 to 10) followed by a bay number (00 to 99), so office numbers range from 100 to 1099. These corridors radiate out from the central courtyard, with corridor 1 beginning with the Concourse's south end. Each numbered radial corridor intersects with the corresponding numbered group of offices (for example, corridor 5 divides the 500 series office block). There are a number of historical displays in the building, particularly in the "A" and "E" rings.
Floors in The Pentagon are lettered "B" for Basement and "M" for Mezzanine, both of which are below ground level. The concourse is located on the second floor at the metro entrance. Above ground floors are numbered 1 to 5. Room numbers are given as the floor, concentric ring, and office number (which is in turn the nearest corridor number followed by the bay number). Thus, office 2B315 is on the second floor, B ring, and nearest to corridor 3 (between corridors 2 and 3). One way to get to this office would be to go to the second floor, get to the A (innermost) ring, go to and take corridor 3, and then turn left on ring B to get to bay 15.
Just south of the Pentagon are Pentagon City and Crystal City, extensive shopping and high-density residential districts in Arlington. Arlington National Cemetery is to the north. The Washington Metro Pentagon station is also located at the Pentagon, on the Blue and Yellow Lines. The Pentagon is surrounded by the complex Pentagon road network.
Although located in Virginia, the United States Postal Service requires that "Washington, D.C." to be used with its six ZIP Codes.
Security
The Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA) is a United States government agency comprising both sworn federal police officers, the United States Pentagon Police and civilian CBRN technicians, and non-sworn civilian anti-terrorism investigative and physical security personnel, and is responsible for the protection of the Pentagon. The Department of Defense created the PFPA after the September 11, 2001 attacks. The new agency absorbed the Defense Protective Service (DPS) and assumed its role of providing basic law enforcement and security for the Pentagon and Department of Defense sites in the 280 acre (1.1 km²) "Pentagon Reservation" and greater National Capital Region (NCR). PFPA was also charged with providing force protection against the full spectrum of potential threats through robust prevention, preparedness, detection, and response measures. The United States Pentagon Police is the primary federal law enforcement arm of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency.
Services
The Pentagon has many of its own fast food operations, including Subway, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Panda Express, Starbucks, Sbarro, among others. A multibranded KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurant opened in 2003, when renovations to the food court were completed. Food services are managed by the Navy Exchange. The Center Courtyard Cafe reopened in Spring 2008, replacing the "Ground Zero Cafe" snack bar that was previously there.
The Pentagon Athletic Center (PAC), a fitness center for military and civilian staff, opened in 2004 adjacent to the north side of the Pentagon, replacing the Pentagon Officers Athletic Club (POAC) which had operated for 55 years in a structure between Route 110 and the parade grounds. Each year, the Pentagon grounds are a major focus for hosting the Marine Corps Marathon and the Army Ten-Miler running events.
In 1976, the Pentagon began offering guided tours to the general public, as part of the American Bicentennial. Tours were suspended after the September 11, 2001 attacks, but are currently available on a pre-arranged basis to the general public.
External links
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- - The Washington Post, May 26, 2007
- retrieved June 13, 2008.
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