Tourist attractions in Washington D.C. : The Pentagon

The Pentagon is located on the old Potomac River floodplains in Arlington County, next to Washington D.C. It is headquarters of the Department of Defense and one of the world’s largest office buildings. It has about three times the floor space of the Empire State Building, which gives an indication of its enormous size. The history of the Pentagon dates back to mid 20th century. The area used to be nothing but wasteland and dumps. It was in 1941, shortly before the US entry into the Second World War, that the decision to construct a building which gathered all Defense personnel in one building was taken.

Photo by La Citta Vita

At the time, the War Department work force numbered more than 24,000 people, housed in 17 different buildings. Needless to say, the new building would have to be huge in order to fit all these people into one single building. The guidelines given was also not to provide office for the current 24,000 employees, but to have a maximum capacity of 40,000 while at the same time keeping the building less than six stories high. This, not so easy task, was solved by Engineer officer General Brehon B. Somervell and his two subordinates, who together proposed a five-sided building design. This shape is commonly known as a pentagonal shape, which has given the building its name. The construction started right away with 41,000 concrete piles and 5,5 million cubic yards of earth forming the foundation of the building.

Photo by Asten

The construction process went incredibly fast and the building stood completed in January 1943, only 16 months after the start of the construction. A normal time period for a project of this magnitude was around four years. In total, around 4,000 men were working the building in three shifts, which explains the remarkably fast completion of the building. Visitors looking at the outside of the Pentagon will see that it is rather stripped of details and other ornamentation. This is a choice the designers made, as they wanted to minimize or avoid using critical war materials when possible.  For example, they used concrete drainpipes rather than metal and they eliminated bronze doors and copper ornaments. The building might look like a big block, but the fact is the Pentagon is built as five pentagonal rings, with space in between each ring to allow sunlight into the building. In the middle of the Pentagon there is even a small park.

Today, the Pentagon is almost as a city in itself. It has more than 20.000 employees and parking lots for over 8.000 cars. While in the building, they tell time by 4,200 clocks, drink from 691 water fountains and can utilize any of the 284 rest rooms. Even though the building was constructed during the early years of World War II, it is still thought of as one of the most efficient office buildings in the world. Despite its enormous size, it only takes around seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building.

Photo by USDAgov

Photo by The U.S. Army

The memorial built after the 9/11 attacks contains 184 benches, one for each victim of the attack, arranged in order of the year of birth of each individual. Each bench also carries the name of a victim with a small pool of water under it. The benches for the 59 victims on board the plane are arranged so that someone reading the name on the end of the bench will face the sky where the plane came from. The 125 benches for the victims inside the Pentagon face the opposite direction, so someone reading the name will look up and see the façade of the Pentagon where the jet hit that day.


Text Source: worldsiteguides.com