The Pentagon


The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense.
The building is pentagon-shaped in plan and houses approximately 23,000
military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support
personnel in Arlington, Virginia. It has five floors and each floor has five
ring corridors. The Pentagon was dedicated on January 15, 1943 and it
remains the world's largest office building.

Built 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 17.5 miles of
corridors it takes a maximum of seven minutes to walk between any two points
in the building.

The central plaza in the Pentagon is the largest "no-salute, no-cover" area
(where hats need not be worn and salutes are not required) in the world. It
is informally called ground zero.

It was built from 680,000 tons of sand and gravel dredged from the nearby
Potomac River that were processed into 435,000 cubic yards of concrete and
molded into the pentagon shape. Very little steel was used in its design due
to the needs of the war effort.

As part of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, American Airlines flight
77 crashed into the building, causing part of it to collapse. For pictures
and graphics showing the damage in the impact see this briefing. Raising
questions about this attack, see this site. The first of the workers whose
offices were destroyed or damaged in the attack began moving back in on
August 15, 2002.

Facts & Figures

   * Overall
        o Construction began September 11, 1941
        o Construction completed January 15, 1943
        o Total cost of project (including outside facilities): $83,000,000
   * Land
        o Total Land Area (acres): 583
        o Cost: $2,245,000
        o Area covered by Pentagon bldg (acres): 29
        o Area of center court (acres): 5
        o Access highways built (miles): 30
        o Overpasses and bridges built: 21
   * Parking
        o Parking space (acres): 67
        o Capacity (vehicles): 8,770
   * Main Building
        o Cost of building: $49,600,000
        o Gross floor area (sq. ft.): 6,636,360
        o Cubic contents (cu. ft.): 77,015,000
        o Length of each outer wall (ft.): 921
        o Height of building (ft.): 77' 3.5"
        o Number of floors, plus mezzanine and basement: 5
        o Total length of corridors (miles): 17.5
   * Number of:
        o Stairways: 131
        o Escalators: 19
        o Elevators: 13
        o Rest Rooms: 284
        o Fixtures: 4,900
        o Drinking fountains: 691
        o Clocks installed: 4,200
        o Light fixtures: 16,250
        o Windows: 7,754