The headquarters of the US Department of Defense, known as the Pentagon, was built in less than a year and a half. For American society, this complex is one of the symbols of the country's military might. Construction of a reinforced concrete building with an area of ​​600 thousand square meters. m began on September 11, 1941 and was completed on January 15, 1943. The Pentagon is located in a wasteland in the suburbs of Washington (Arlington) on the Potomac River.

In the shape of a regular pentagon

Until 1941, the United States Department of Defense did not exist as a single agency. The idea to place separate headquarters of each type of troops and the bureaucracy in one building belonged to the 32nd US President Franklin Roosevelt.

The Pentagon was conceived as a grandiose complex capable of accommodating 26,000 employees with the prospect of expanding to 40,000. Department of Defense land was allocated for construction, once owned by the commander of the Confederate army, Robert E. Lee, one of the central historical figures of the Civil War (1861-1865) .

The road junction in the selected section formed several faces of a regular pentagon - a pentagon. Architect George Bergstrom came up with the idea to fit the building into the landscape.

• Construction work, 1 July 1942
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Later, it was decided to deploy the construction elsewhere. At the same time, the shape and size of the building did not change.

The work was carried out around the clock and lasted 491 days. An astronomical amount for the 1940s was spent on the Pentagon project - $ 83 million. Inexpensive reinforced concrete was chosen as the main material for construction.

Concentric rings and ergonomics

The Pentagon building turned out to be relatively low (five floors, 23 m high), but extremely wide. The length of each side (face) is 281 m, and the perimeter of the building is over 1.4 km.

The US Department of Defense building consists of five concentric rings divided into sections (the underground tier has seven rings). Between themselves, the rings are radially connected by ten corridors. The total length of the corridors is about 28 km. Inside the building there are 13 elevators, 19 escalators and 131 stairs, two-wheeled electric scooters are provided for ease of movement.

Despite its grandiose size, the Pentagon is considered one of the most ergonomic office buildings in the world - within seven minutes you can walk to any end of the complex (if you go straight through the courtyard). However, sometimes the corridors of the ministry look like a real labyrinth.

There is a known case when the 34th American President Dwight Eisenhower got lost in the Pentagon: returning from a meeting in one of the buildings, the head of the White House could not find his way to his office.

At the time of the construction of the Pentagon, laws related to racial segregation were still in force in the United States. In this regard, the building of the Ministry of Defense was designed taking into account the zoning of the interior into sectors for "white" and "colored" (it was about cafeterias, latrines, conference rooms). Therefore, now there are twice as many toilets in the Pentagon than it should be according to sanitary standards.

“For some time, the building of the Ministry of Defense was considered the world's largest office center. Sometimes there is talk about the need to increase the area of ​​​​the Pentagon, because today far from all the personnel of the Ministry of Defense work there, ”said Valery Garbuzov, director of the Institute for the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.

According to the expert, the Pentagon no longer impresses with its architectural grandeur. However, he retains the role of one of the symbols of American military power.

“This is partly the merit of Hollywood, which represents the Pentagon not just as the headquarters of the American armed forces, but as a kind of place where key decisions about the fate of the world are allegedly made,” Garbuzov said.

Death Lunch

The US Department of Defense building is open to tour groups. There are many interesting exhibits in the Pentagon premises (there is even an Oscar from the National Film Academy for the documentary series Why We Fight).

In the center of the courtyard is the Ground Zero cafeteria. According to the legend of the Cold War, in the event of a nuclear strike on the Pentagon from the USSR, the epicenter of the explosion would fall directly on this diner, since Soviet intelligence allegedly mistook Ground Zero for a bunker for secret documents - satellite images were recorded at certain hours near the building of a crowd of people. Therefore, lunch at Ground Zero was called the most dangerous in the world.

• Ground Zero cafeteria in the courtyard of the Pentagon
• U.S. Department of Defense

In addition to Ground Zero, there are many other cafes, canteens and buffets inside the Pentagon, including well-known brands such as Subway and McDonald's.

"Underground Pentagon"

As Garbuzov noted, the Pentagon struck the imagination of contemporaries and inspired cinematographers to create all sorts of legends that were partially intertwined with reality.

One of the most common myths is the existence of a developed system of "catacombs" in the Pentagon. In reality, the US Department of Defense building has only two underground tiers.

In Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Being Afraid and Loved the Bomb (1964), American politicians, scientists, and a Soviet diplomat, gathered in a Pentagon conference room, tried to prevent a nuclear war between the two superpowers. And when it became clear that the end of the world could not be avoided, the characters of the film decided to take refuge in special underground bunkers.

The US Department of Defense infrastructure does include shelters, but they are all located far from the Pentagon.

terrorist attack

The only documented attack on the Pentagon was the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Then a Boeing 757-200 hijacked by terrorists (American Airlines Flight 77) with 58 passengers (including five terrorists) and six crew members on board crashed into the left outer wing of the building occupied by the US Navy.

The victims of the attack were 184 people, including 125 who were at that moment in the building of the Ministry of Defense. It is noteworthy that on this tragic day 60 years have passed since the start of construction of the Pentagon.

In 2001, the Pentagon was in the process of reconstruction, which started back in 1998. And on September 11, the plane crashed into just that part of the building where construction work was underway.

• Aftermath of the attack on the Pentagon, September 11, 2001
• U.S. Department of Defense

After the plane crashed into the Pentagon, its body was completely destroyed by fire, only the steering wheel and flight recorder survived. In footage released by the FBI a few years after the attack, you can see only a few small fragments of the liner.

In an interview with RT, military expert Yuri Knutov noted that the ramming of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 was a complete surprise for the American military. The terrorists used a new method of mass murder, which was impossible to prevent by means of air defense.

• Memorial to those killed in the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001
• Reuters

On September 11, 2002, the left wing of the Pentagon was restored. In 2008, a memorial was erected in front of the building in memory of the victims of the attack.

Perhaps one of the most famous buildings in the world is the Pentagon, built in the shape of a pentagon (Greek) - a geometric figure with five corners in the form of a regular pentagon, from which, in fact, its name comes from. It was built back in 1943, but to this day the Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. In continuation of the post, I have collected some unique facts about this building that can really surprise you.

This building was not built for the Ministry of Defense.
The construction of the Pentagon is certainly not ancient history, but it has already entered the history of America. The fact is that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt never intended to use the Pentagon building as an office for the Department of Defense. In the 1930s, another building was built specifically for the Ministry of Defense for the departments of the military and naval departments, but they quickly outgrew the premises in the building. Then Roosevelt allocated the Pentagon building for the Department of Defense, which can accommodate 40,000 employees and 10,000 cars. The old War Department Building currently houses the US Department of State.

Bigger than the Empire State Building.
With an area of ​​474,300 square meters, the Pentagon has twice as much office space as the Empire State Building in New York.

The Pentagon was built on the site of a slum called "Lower Hell".
The Pentagon was built on the site of the poor black suburbs known as "Lower Hell". After the Civil War, the area was settled by former slaves. Prostitution flourished here and there were red-light districts.

It was nicknamed "Ground Zero" during the Cold War.
During the Cold War, the Pentagon was called Ground Zero. It got this name because if there was a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, then nuclear missiles would destroy the Pentagon in the first place.

28 kilometers...
Just walking around the Pentagon can be quite tired. The fact is that in total the Pentagon has corridors with a length of 28 kilometers. In fact, the building is a real labyrinth. General Eisenhower once got lost in the Pentagon while trying to find his office.

Repair.
Since the Pentagon opened its doors in 1943, only one of them has been overhauled. The renovation lasted 17 years and ended in 2011. Luckily, it didn't cost too much for such a building - the entire renovation cost the agency $4.5 billion.

Only 5 floors.
The Pentagon is only 5 stories high. This design for the building was chosen to save steel for the needs of the army during World War II, which was in full swing during its construction. The architects also made it not very tall, because they did not want to spoil the view of the capital across the Potomac River.

There is no lift.
There are no elevators in the Pentagon. All movement between floors is carried out using ramps. It was also originally done to save steel during World War II.

The construction was completed in record time.
The Pentagon building is actually huge and very massive, it's hard to think that its construction could be completed very quickly. But it's not. In fact, General Leslie Groves R. (who also oversaw the Manhattan Project) built the Pentagon in just two years.

There are many toilets in the Pentagon.
The Pentagon currently has twice as many latrines as it actually needs. This happened because it was built during American segregation and the builders needed to equip separate latrines for white and black workers.

Somewhere in 1940, the American administration had a crazy idea - to place the entire US Department of Defense in one building. And this is no less than 26,000 employees scattered in 17 separate buildings in the District of Columbia, Day.Az reports with reference to Russian Seven. Moreover, according to the terms of reference, 40 thousand people should have comfortably accommodated in the future citadel at the same time!

108 degree angle

In Europe, the Second World War was gaining momentum, to which the Americans could join at any moment, but here is such an idea! It somehow turns out illogical - all the key military commanders are under one roof. Even the top managers of Coca-Cola, who know the recipe for soda, do not fly in the same plane. Nevertheless, the architects immediately after the president's go-ahead began to look for a territory for the construction of the citadel.

In Arlington, a suburb of Washington, they chose a place that had once been expropriated. Feng Shui masters would certainly envy them. Most captivating was that the piece of land was delineated by five roads, some of which intersected at 108-degree angles.

To most, of course, this could not say much, but the architects are strong in geometry, and they knew very well that lines converge at such a degree in an equilateral pentagon, which the ancient Greeks called the "pentagon".

For us, it will remain a mystery what came first - the place that the searchlights discovered, or the project for which the territory was specially selected. I must say that the place was decently swampy, and very close to it was the famous Arlington Cemetery, where American soldiers were buried - not the best place for construction. The feng shui masters would hardly have approved, but the US president probably knew more than the Chinese geomancers - the land for construction was agreed upon. The only thing Roosevelt ordered - at the request of his wife - was to slightly move, half a mile, the future building so that it would not block the view from Arlington Cemetery to Washington.

"Let no geometer enter"

As you know, at the entrance to the Academy of the philosopher Plato hung the motto "Let no geometer enter." Today we can confidently say that the authors of the building of the American department would have been heartily received by capricious Platonists.

Few people know that the Pentagon is still the most optimal structure in terms of ergonomics.

The building is crossed by ten corridors in the center, which connect five pentagons coming from the center. So, an employee of the American military department can get to any point of the building along the perimeter, spending no more than seven minutes on it.

Natural ergonomics is associated with the properties of the geometric figure itself. So, the diagonals of the pentagon form a pentagram, and the points of intersection of the diagonals in a regular pentagon are always the points of the "golden section". At the same time, they form another pentagon, which, when drawing diagonals, will certainly form another one. And so on ad infinitum.

Thus, the pentagon, as it were, consists of an infinite number of pentagons, which are formed by the intersection points of the diagonals.

This endless repetition of the same geometric figure creates a sense of rhythm and harmony, which is unconsciously fixed by our mind.

twelve pentagons

However, probably not only ergonomic advantages prompted the US military to opt for a regular pentagon figure. The symbolism itself played a big role. Let's go back to Plato. The famous philosopher called the dodecahedron the most perfect geometric body - a dodecahedron made up of twelve pentagons. Plato claimed that it was his "God used to plan the universe as a model."

In 2003, while analyzing data from NASA's WMAP spacecraft, it was hypothesized that the universe is a dodecahedral Poincaré space. According to simulation data, the results of observations indicated that the Universe is a set of infinitely repeating dodecahedrons - regular polyhedra, the surface of which is formed by 12 pentagons.

It is curious that among conspiracy theorists a hypothesis has arisen that the Pentagon building is only a visible part of the structure. They say that the structure is completely in shape exactly a dodecahedron, however, the rest of the geometric body is hidden from view underground. Of course, this cannot be verified. Any uncertainty excites fantasies.

stellar pattern

Many experts in the field of astrology argued that the construction of the Pentagon was not without the advice of astrologers. The construction was planned to begin on September 11, 1941 and finish on January 15, 1943.

It is curious that the deadlines were met by the builders, as they say, second to second, which in itself is an exceptional case - especially for wartime.

Astrologers noticed a certain "star" regularity in the dates of the start and end of construction. Their attention was drawn to the "planet of war" - Mars. Construction began when this celestial body was in its sign - Aries, and ended when Mars was in its other sign - Scorpio. It is curious that after the commissioning of the Pentagon, the American army conducted only successful military operations in World War II.

This date mysteriously accompanies the Pentagon. On this day in 1941, the construction of the building began, in 2001 the Pentagon was attacked by a Boeing, and on September 11, 2002, the entire territory of the Pentagon was put back into operation.

One of the main improvements was the complete renovation of the windows of the building, replacing them with armored ones. The outer walls of the building were reinforced and made blast resistant. The elevators leading to the metro station were closed and general security measures were significantly increased.

Conspiracy theorists are trying to look for patterns in this coincidence, but so far no one has been able to open the riddle of the September 11 factor. It is curious that some hotheads, fascinated by the mysteries of the Pentagon, predict that two more September 11ths should happen in the "biography" of the object - in order to symbolically complete the regular pentagon.

Where did the remains of the Boeing go?

But the main mystery, at least that has become public knowledge, is the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon building. According to official data, on this day, at 9:37:46, the left wing of the US military building was rammed by a Boeing 757-200. This wing houses the command of the naval forces. Part of the building collapsed and was seriously damaged. Curiously, at the time of the strike, it was this wing of the Pentagon that was undergoing redevelopment, and most of the employees from it were transferred to other offices. Almost immediately after the attack, dozens of comments appeared claiming that no plane had crashed into the Pentagon. According to the doubters, the damage to the building is minimal after being attacked by a 100-ton aircraft moving at a speed of at least 300 km per hour.

"On the site in front of the wall, not only is there no debris, but there are no traces of burning on the grass from the huge volume of blazing fuel from the (presumably) destroyed aircraft tanks," the experts write.

In addition, after any plane crash, even the most terrible, there are always recognizable remains of parts of the fuselage. In the case of the Pentagon, according to official information, all the remains of the Boeing were melted down in a fire. Miraculously, only the black box survived, the records of which proved that the plane had been hijacked by terrorists.

Some analysts put forward a version that the nature of the destruction of the Pentagon is more consistent with an attack by a Tomahawk cruise missile without a warhead, without a warhead (explosives) - ramming an aircraft with almost full tanks, they say, should have almost completely destroyed the Pentagon. However, employees of the department do not comment on the opinions of amateurs. What can people, even experts in explosives, know about the supernatural properties of the geometric figure of an equilateral pentagon? And then, how can these doubters explain, where did the passengers of the plane, which allegedly did not crash, go?

Numerology

While the Pentagon is boiling in a closed space of an infinite number of internal pentagons, pentagrams, "flavored" with golden sections, people outside are trying in vain to unravel their riddles. Sometimes those who are dissatisfied with the official information of the US military department have to be content with cunning numerological calculations that give entertaining results.

So, the Pentagon was built in 491 days. If, according to the Pythagorean method, we add these numbers (4 + 9 + 1), then we get - 5 (the number of sides of the pentagon). If we go further, according to the same Pythagorean method, and decide to multiply the numbers (4X9X1), then we get - 36. If we do not calm down on this number, we calculate the sum of all integers from 1 to 36, then we get - 666.

Conspiracy theorists claim that it was for the sake of this number that the builders worked day and night, so as not to overwhelm the deadlines. But you can agree on anything that way. By the way, the pentagon with the pentagram enclosed in it was a symbol of the famous Pythagorean mystical union founded by the ancient Greek thinker. So, the Pythagoreans believed that their emblem not only symbolizes the harmony of the universe, but is also capable of exerting a harmonious effect on the surrounding space. The boundaries of influence, of course, depend on the size of the regular pentagon. So, the perimeter of the Arlington geometric figure is about 1405 meters - this is enough today to influence the whole world.

January 15, 1943 completed the construction of the Pentagon - the building that housed the US Department of Defense. The structure was designed in the form of a pentagon, hence its name, borrowed from the Greek language. We will tell you some more interesting facts about the Pentagon

Territory.

The idea to build a building that would shelter the US Department of Defense under one roof appeared in 1941. On September 2, President Roosevelt gave official approval for construction near Hoover Airport in Arlington, although World War II was already raging in Europe. Interestingly, the neighboring slums, as well as pawnshops, factories, one hundred and fifty houses and other buildings, were simply demolished to clear the area for the Pentagon. Later 1.2 sq. km of land were transferred to the Arlington National Cemetery and Fort Mayer, and 1.1 square meters remained for the Pentagon. km.

Building parameters.

The Pentagon building is equilateral. The length of each side is the same and equal to 281 meters 5 centimeters, and the perimeter is one and a half kilometers. If you add up the total length of the corridors of the structure, you get a very impressive figure - 28 km. The area of ​​​​the five above-ground floors of the Pentagon is 604 thousand square meters. meters. It is noteworthy that the building does not end with the above-ground part, the height of which is 23.5 meters, there are two more floors underground.

The most ergonomic building.

Despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since the construction of the Pentagon, it is still considered the most ergonomic in the world. The fact is that you can get to any point of the structure along the perimeter in just seven minutes. The building itself is crossed by 10 corridors in the center, which unite 5 pentagons coming from the center.

The Pentagon is famous for its large number of toilets.

From the very beginning, the Pentagon project provided more toilets than was necessary. The mystery lies in the racial division that existed in those days. It is today that we can see how American soldiers of different races fight side by side, but back in 1943, this was still far away. Therefore, they built separate toilets for whites and African Americans. It's good that they didn't hang the appropriate signs on the doors. Only in 1948 the racial segregation of the army was abolished.

Construction cost.

Construction of the Pentagon lasted approximately sixteen months and cost American taxpayers $83 million - a huge amount of money at the time. If you translate the amount into today's money, it will still turn out decently - about 300 million US dollars.

Amount of workers.

The size of the Pentagon is impressive, but not as many people work in it as it might seem - about 26 thousand. Notably, the average Chinese factory has more employees. Yet the Pentagon makes more than 200,000 phone calls and sends more than 40,000 letters daily.

"Epicenter".

The Pentagon has a courtyard that houses a grocery store that serves employees of the department. It was around him that legends began to be composed, moreover, associated with the Russians. During the Cold War, Soviet military analysts speculated that there was a bunker underneath this small building. They made such a conclusion because, according to the testimony of satellites, a large number of people passed through it. So the story was formed, they say, the Soviet military aimed nuclear missiles directly at the grocery store. Because of this, he received the ominous name "epicenter".

The shops.

In the lobby of the building there are many shops, offices of banks and other organizations serving the employees of the ministry. There are flower, confectionery and jewelry stores, cafes and restaurants of world famous chains here: McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway, Sbarro, KFC, Panda Express, Pizza Hut and others. As the Americans joke, this is in order to appease disgruntled military wives with different goodies, decorations, because, as you know, the military often lingers at work.

A few more numbers.

More than fifty kilometers of roads were built for convenient access to the Pentagon.

The net area of ​​offices and warehouses is 320 thousand square meters.

Between the concentric rings of the Pentagon, 21 bridges have been built.

The Pentagon building has 131 stairs, 19 escalators, 13 elevators.

There are 7,754 windows in the five above-ground floors of the Pentagon.

The US Department of Defense building has 672 fire shields, 284 toilets, and 691 drinking fountains.

Hackers.

The Pentagon's official website has several mirrors. This is due to the fact that the website and computer network of the US Department of Defense are constantly being attacked by hackers, about six thousand a day.

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the US Department of Defense on the banks of the Potomac River. The name since the Cold War symbolizes the American military elite.

In Greek, the word "pentagon" means pentagon - the building really looks like a regular pentagon. This form was chosen by chance.

Construction of the Pentagon

On the eve of World War II, the US Department of Defense was housed in seventeen overcrowded buildings. President Roosevelt decided to build a new headquarters, a suitable place was found on the banks of the Potomac, on a plot in the shape of an irregular pentagon. The building was entered into the site, the sketches were shown to Roosevelt, but he ordered the construction site to be moved so as not to spoil the view of Arlington National Cemetery. However, I liked the design, the building was only given a geometrically correct shape.

Construction on the project of architect George Bergstrom began in September 1941, the work was led by Colonel Leslie Groves. The grandiose building was erected using unusual technologies. The Americans were accustomed to powerful steel frames, but the war was approaching, the fleet needed steel. Reinforced concrete was used; for its preparation, 680 thousand tons of river sand were raised from the bottom of the Potomac.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered the war. The Pentagon was built at breakneck speed: although the design continued until June 1942, the first wing received employees in April! All work was completed in January 1943. The well-executed Leslie Groves now led the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of atomic weapons and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Pentagon building

The Pentagon is spread horizontally and seems low: only five floors. But the area of ​​its premises is 600 thousand square meters, it is one of the largest office buildings in the world. The size of the Pentagon is such that the Empire State Building, laid on its side, will fit into it. However, the layout in the form of five concentric rings connected by beams allows a person to walk to any point from anywhere in seven minutes. The peculiarity of the building is a huge number of toilets: in the forties they were made separate for whites and blacks, then segregation was a thing of the past, but the toilets remained. The length of the local telephone lines is such that the wires can wrap around the earth's equator four and a half times.

In addition to office space, the Pentagon has a Hall of Heroes for the presentation of the highest US military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor. The names of all medal holders are written on the walls of the hall.

September disaster

On September 11, 2001, a Boeing 757 hijacked by al-Qaeda terrorists crashed into the western facade of the Pentagon. The explosion killed 184 people. But the steel reinforcement held on for another 30 minutes, which allowed hundreds of employees to escape. The tragic event is reminiscent of a memorial and a chapel located at the point of explosion. Near the building there is a memorial park, in which 184 benches are lined up along the line of the last flight of the Boeing.

On a note

• Location: 1400 Pentagon Pedestrian Tunnel, Washington
• Nearest metro stations: "Pentagon Metro Station"
• Official site: http://pentagontours.osd.mil
• Opening hours: excursions Mon-Fri 9.00 - 15.00. You need to sign up for an excursion to the Pentagon on the official website, it is better long before the trip - it happens that you have to wait several months for confirmation.
• Tickets: free.