With any mention of the US Army, almost every person immediately imagines the enormous power of this country. For Americans, the Pentagon has always been a symbol of military power. This huge building has an unusual shape, which has the shape of a pentagon. The Pentagon is located near the city of Washington.
History of the construction of the Pentagon in the United States
The Pentagon is the largest office building, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. The total area of this grand building is more than 600,000 square meters. Each of its five sides is exactly 281 meters long.
Despite the enormous size of the building, the architects tried to simplify the process of moving from building to building as much as possible. Now the farthest part of the Pentagon can get a maximum of 7 minutes.
Construction of the Pentagon in the United States began in 1941 and was supposed to end in 1943. Such short terms were set by General Brehon Somervell. Construction was carried out in three shifts, without weekends and holidays. Due to the fact that tens of thousands of workers worked at the construction site, the construction was completed in January 1943. They built the Pentagon by sector, so that the relocation of the US Department of Defense took place in stages. Some employees moved before the completion of the building.
Despite the speed, at the time of delivery, the Pentagon was equipped not only with water and sewage, but even had a helipad. Not so long ago, the Pentagon got bus stops and subways.
40 years after the construction, the Pentagon chief ordered the start of a major overhaul of the building. At the Pentagon were replaced:
- All communications, including wiring;
- Window;
- New cabinets were renovated and built;
- Replaced old and built new elevators.
Huge damage to the building of the headquarters of the US Department of Defense hit the terrorists on September 11, 2001.
Terrorist attack on the Pentagon building in September 2001
A series of terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, turned this day into a catastrophe. In addition to the destruction of the twin towers, al Qaeda terrorists attacked the Pentagon building. The passenger plane Boeing 757-200, flying at a minimum height, crashed into the building of the headquarters of the Navy. As a result of this accident, 125 Pentagon employees were killed, not including passengers of the captured Boeing. The facade of the building received a huge hole having a diameter of about 5 meters.
The death toll could have been much more if there had been no repairs in this part of the building and some of the staff had not been transferred to other premises of the complex. After the restoration of this part of the building, a chapel and a memorial in memory of the lost people were erected in it.
Was the Boeing really?
Although the head of the Pentagon assured the public that it was the attack that caused the damage to one of the buildings of the Pentagon, there is a group of people who refute this version. In their opinion, the statement of the US Department of Defense is a lie, which is confirmed by the following facts:
- Boeing crashed into the very wing of the building where the overhaul was carried out;
- Damage to the building does not correspond to the mass of a huge aircraft that was supposed to destroy at least half of the Pentagon;
- On the territory where the accident occurred, there are no traces of fuel, which was supposed to spill out when the plane hit the building;
- No debris was found in which part of the fuselage could be recognized. According to an official statement by the US authorities, all the wreckage of the aircraft melted in the event of a fire (if there were no traces of burning fuel, whence could a fire of such force arise);
- Only the black box remained safe and sound, all the records of which clearly indicated the fact of hijacking the plane by the terrorists (although a fire of such strength that melted even the casing had to, at least, severely damage the black box).
Many doubters push the version that instead of an airplane, a Tomahawk cruise missile without a warhead crashed into the Pentagon building. Ministry of Defense officials do not comment on such versions.
September 11 is a mysterious date in the history of the Pentagon
It would seem that the terrorist act of September 11, 2001, is neither related to the history of the Pentagon, but this is only at first glance. This date has already reminded itself of itself three times:
- It was on September 11, 1941 that the construction of the complex, called the Pentagon, was started;
- September 11, 2001, a series of terrorist attacks took place in which the Pentagon suffered as well;
- A year later, on the same day, the territory of the Pentagon was re-commissioned. Over the year, the entire building was thoroughly modernized, acquired a set of new protective measures, all windows were replaced with armored ones, and the external walls of the building became blast-resistant.
Numerology clearly traces the regularity of these processes, although no one was able to guess the secret of 9/11. There is a hypothesis that two more similar incidents should occur, since there are five walls near the Pentagon. The last two cases will have to logically complete the regular pentagon.
Some interesting facts regarding the construction of the Pentagon
The construction of the Pentagon is associated with several incidents and legends, some of which originate from the days of the Cold War:
- The form of the Pentagon was specially designed taking into account the terrain where it was originally planned to build. Several highways converged at this point, and the project fit perfectly into the interchange. The building was never built there, but the project itself and its name were left unchanged;
- President Roosevelt personally ordered the construction of the Pentagon down the river, since in its original place it would block the view from the cemetery on Washington. According to rumors, the president’s wife insisted on it;
- The inner courtyard of the Pentagon, which covers an area of 21,000 square meters, is called the Epicenter. This name appeared during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Americans joked that the head of the Pentagon specifically indicated to the USSR a place where it was better to aim with nuclear warheads in order to destroy everything the US Department of Defense with one blow;
- In the 1940s, racism flourished in the United States, so the Pentagon building had twice as many toilet facilities as required. Some were meant for whites, others for colored employees. In order for no one to confuse anything, the doors to the lavatories were provided with special signs. Under pressure from the public, President Roosevelt was forced to give special orders, after which the plates were removed.
Mysterious facts related to the construction of the Pentagon
One of the most interesting enigmas of the Pentagon is how the heads of military departments decided on such an adventure. At a time when war was raging in Europe, and each state tried to locate its departments in secret places, the decision of the “chief” of the US Department of Defense shocked with its simplicity.
Many ordinary Americans saw a conspiracy in this, because 17 separate departments, which employed about 26 thousand employees, were collected in one building, which was located in open space. All military secrets were collected in one place and could be destroyed with one blow.
Even in the Coca-Cola company they were afraid to send all the employees who knew the secret of making a drink in one plane, and here the whole Ministry of Defense. One way or another, the Pentagon building was built, although some still consider it a conspiracy against the US government.
