The PentagonWhat is the Pentagon? The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.
The Pentagon was designed by the American architect George Bergstrom (1876 – 1955). The Pentagon was built by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, general contractor John McShain. The Pentagon building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, after ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941.
| The Pentagon ReservationThe Pentagon Reservation is located in southeastern Arlington County, Virginia, and is situated between a large man-made lagoon (the Pentagon Lagoon, formed during construction) and the southeastern corner of Arlington National Cemetery. The northeastern and eastern facades have unobstructed vistas of the Monumental Core of the Nation’s Capital across the Potomac River. The Pentagon’s relatively low profile also permits clear vistas of Washington from the highlands of Arlington National Cemetery. |
The Pentagon is the world's largest office building by floor area, with about 6,500,000 sq ft (604,000 m2), of which 3,700,000 sq ft (344,000 m2) are used as offices. It is twice the size of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and has three times the floor space of the Empire State Building in New York. The National Capitol could fit into any one of the five wedge-shaped sections. Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon. The Pentagon has five sides, five floors above ground (plus two basement levels below ground), and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 miles of corridors. The Pentagon includes a five-acre 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. |
