Welcome to the famous Pentagon building.
The building is the 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 you
an indication of its enormous size.
However, the site you are standing at 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.
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.
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.
When you look at the outside of the Pentagon, you 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 you can even find a small park.
Exactly 60 years after the initial construction of the Pentagon, the September 11 attacks
occurred, in which American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the west side of the building.
The flight penetrated three of the five pentagonal rings, killing a total of 184 people.
Luckily, the area hit by the plane was undergoing renovations, which left several offices unoccupied.
Otherwise the death toll would likely have been even higher.
After the attacks, a massive project was initiated with the task of rebuilding the damaged sections
within one year.
It was named the "Phoenix Project" with reference to the mythological Phoenix bird, which always
rises from the ashes.
The 9/11 attacks also lead to the construction of the place you are standing at right now,
the Pentagon Memorial.
The construction of this memorial began in 2006 and was dedicated on September 11, 2008.
The memorial 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.
If you pay attention, you will see that some of the benches points towards the Pentagon
while other point away.
This is no coincidence, but symbolizes whether or not the victim was inside the plane of
at the Pentagon.
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.
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.
Getting an in depth look of the inside of the Pentagon can be hard if you haven't booked
a time in advance, but if its possible and you have the time, I can highly recommend
a visit on the inside.