Today’s countdown count is brought to you by the number 5 and the 5 sided puzzle palace we call the Pentagon. On the eve of war, then COL Leslie Groves began supervision of the pentagon construction onSeptember 11, 1941. One and a half years later, on January 15, 1943 the building was dedicated. Remember for all but three months of the construction, we were fighting what would become the largest war in the history of man. Maybe that is appropriate because at the time, the Pentagon was the largest office building in the world at 6,500,000 square feet (Theres a building in China with 18,000,000 square feet). The Pentagon has its own mall, food court, dry cleaners and barbershop/beauty salons. The Pentagon was designed to replace the myriad headquarters and temporary buildings that had cropped up during WWI and were still in use in 1941. The capital mall was covered in these wooden temporary buildings. The site chosen was the notorious Hells Bottom, a small suburban area in Arlington, VA filled with pawnshops, houses of ill repute and slums. Because of the shortage of steel needed for the war effort, the building was constructed of reinforced concrete, with t he sand for the concrete being dredged from the Potomac River which runs down one side. Once COL Groves was finished with the Pentagon, he went on the head the Manhattan project that built the first atomic bomb – probably appropriate because by the late 50s, the standing joke at the Pentagon was that the snack bar in the center courtyard was “ground zero” for the Soviet atomic arsenal. Groves was pressured to comply with the segregation rules of Virginia at the time and the facility was constructed with “white and colored” washrooms etc all marked by signage appropriate to the times. By the time it was being occupied in late 1941, President Roosevelt visited the building and ordered the signs removed, from 1941 to 1965, the Pentagon was the only “public building” in Virginia that was not racially segregated. The Pentagon was attacked as part of the attack on America on September 11, 2001. What the terrorists didn’t realize was that they were targeting the one side of the building that was capable of dealing with the aftermath. The western side of the building has just been upgraded with steel girders, a fire suppression system and blast resistant windows. They had also just added emergency exits to that wing. All of those things contributed to the lower than expected loss of life – in all 125 Pentagon employees, 60 passengers and crew and 4 terrorists were killed. The building has been completely repaired. I visited in 2008 and except for the memorial and new chapel area installed after the attack you’d never know it was hit. Why do we call it the five sided puzzle palace? Spend a day in uniform - you’ll understand.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 10:05:55 +0000
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