The Pentagon – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. For the geometric figure, see Pentagon. For other uses, see Pentagon (disambiguation). The Pentagon

The Pentagon in January 2008

Shown on District of Columbia map

Pentagon Office Building Complex

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 U.S. Department of Defense rather than the building itself.

Designed by American architect George Bergstrom (18761955), and built by general contractor John McShain of Philadelphia, 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;[4] Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the U.S. Army.

The Pentagon is a large office building, with about 6,500,000 sqft (600,000m2), of which 3,700,000 sqft (340,000m2) are used as offices.[5][6] Approximately 28,000 military and civilian employees[6] and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5mi (28.2km)[6] of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre (20,000m2) 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 in the outbreak of a nuclear war.[7]

On September 11, 2001, exactly sixty years after the building's groundbreaking, a Boeing 757-223, American Airlines Flight 77, was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the western side of the Pentagon, killing 189 people (the five hijackers, 59 others aboard the plane, and 125 in the building).[8] It was the first significant foreign attack on the capital's U.S. government facilities since the Burning of Washington by the British during the War of 1812.[citation needed]

Before the Pentagon was built, the United States Department of War was headquartered in the Greggory Building, a temporary structure erected during World War I along Constitution Avenue on the National Mall. The War Department, which was a civilian agency created to administer the U.S. Army, was spread out in additional temporary buildings on National Mall, as well as dozens of other buildings in Washington, D.C., 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.[9] When World War II broke out in Europe, the War Department rapidly expanded in anticipation that the United States would be drawn into the conflict. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson found the situation unacceptable, with the Munitions Building overcrowded and the department spread out.[10][11]

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.[12]

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