Pentagon territory. The Pentagon is a symbol of US military power. What used to be on the site of the Pentagon
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 power. 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 vacant lot in the suburbs of Washington (Arlington) on the Potomac River.
In the shape of a regular pentagon
Before 1941, the United States Department of Defense did not exist as a single agency. The idea of locating separate headquarters of each type of military force and bureaucratic apparatus in one building belonged to the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt.
The Pentagon was conceived as a grandiose complex capable of accommodating 26 thousand employees with the prospect of expansion to 40 thousand. Land of the Ministry of Defense that once belonged to the commander of the Confederate army Robert E. Lee, one of the central historical figures of the times, was allocated for construction Civil War (1861—1865).
The road junction in the selected area 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, July 1, 1942
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Later, it was decided to expand the construction elsewhere. However, the shape and size of the building were not changed.
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 in height), but extremely wide. The length of each side (edge) 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 level has seven rings). The rings are radially connected to each other 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 enormous 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 walk 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 Ministry of Defense building was designed taking into account the zoning of the interior into sectors for “whites” and “coloreds” (we were talking about cafeterias, restrooms, conference rooms). That's why there are now twice as many toilets in the Pentagon as required. sanitary standards.
“For some time, the Ministry of Defense building was considered the largest office center in the world. Sometimes there is talk about the need to increase the area of the Pentagon, because today not all the personnel of the Ministry of Defense work there,” said Valery Garbuzov, director of the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.
According to the expert, the Pentagon no longer amazes with its architectural grandeur. However, it retains its role as one of the symbols of American military power.
“This is partly the merit of Hollywood, which presents the Pentagon as not just the headquarters of the American armed forces, but as a place where key decisions about the fate of the world are supposedly made,” Garbuzov noted.
"Deadly" lunch
The US Department of Defense building is open to tour groups. There are many interesting exhibits on the premises of the Pentagon (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 times 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 at certain times recorded crowds of people near the building. That's why lunch at Ground Zero was called the most dangerous in the world.
- Ground Zero cafeteria in the Pentagon courtyard
- U.S. Department of Defense
In addition to Ground Zero, there are many other cafes, canteens and buffets inside the Pentagon, including such well-known brands as Subway and McDonald's.
"Underground Pentagon"
As Garbuzov noted, the Pentagon captured the imagination of contemporaries and inspired filmmakers to create all sorts of legends that were partially intertwined with reality.
One of the most common myths is the existence of a developed “catacomb” system 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 to try 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 in the film decided to take refuge in special underground bunkers.
The US Department of Defense infrastructure does include shelters, but they are all located away 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 (American Airlines Flight 77) hijacked by terrorists 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 terrorist attack were 184 people, including 125 who were in the Ministry of Defense building at that moment. It is noteworthy that on this tragic day it was 60 years 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 the very part of the building where construction work was being carried out.
- Aftermath of the Pentagon attack, 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 the flight recorder survived. In footage released by the FBI several years after the attack, only isolated small fragments of the plane can be seen.
In a conversation with RT, military expert Yuri Knutov noted that the ramming of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 came as a complete surprise to American military personnel. The terrorists used new way massacre, which could not be prevented by 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 memory of the victims of the attack in front of the building.
Perhaps one of the most famous buildings in the world is the Pentagon, built in the shape of a pentagon (Greek) - geometric figure with five corners in the form of a regular pentagon, which is where its name actually 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 several unique facts about this building that will 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 gone down in American history. The fact is that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt never intended to use the Pentagon building as a Department of Defense office. 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 available in the building. Roosevelt then allocated the Pentagon building for the Department of Defense, which could accommodate 40,000 employees and 10,000 vehicles. The old War Department building currently houses the US State Department.
More than 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” streets.
It received the nickname "Ground Zero" during the Cold War.
During the Cold War, the Pentagon was called “Ground Zero.” It received this name because if a nuclear war happened with Soviet Union, then nuclear missiles would destroy the Pentagon first.
28 kilometers...
You can get quite tired just walking around the Pentagon. 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, it has undergone only one major renovation. The renovation lasted 17 years and ended in 2011. Fortunately, it was not that expensive for such a building - the entire renovation cost the department $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 military's needs 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.
No elevator.
There are no elevators in the Pentagon. All movements between floors are carried out using ramps. This was also originally done to save steel during World War II.
Construction was completed in record time.
The Pentagon building is actually huge and very massive that it is difficult to think that its construction could be completed very quickly. But that's not true. In fact, General Leslie R. Groves (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 restrooms as it actually needs. This happened because it was built during American segregation and the builders needed to provide separate restrooms for white and black workers.
The chronology of the events of September 11, 2001 states that the events at the Pentagon occurred between the attacks on the Twin Towers and their collapse, namely:
8:46 - strike on the north tower of WTC,
9:03 - strike on the south tower of WTC,
9:37 - strike on the Pentagon,
9:42 - ABC report about a fire in the White House (in the EOP building),
9:59 - WTC south tower collapses,
10:10 - collapse of part of the Pentagon buildings,
10:28 - collapse of the northern WTC tower,
10:37 - Flight 93 crashes over Pennsylvania,
17:20 - collapse of the WTC7 building,
18:00 - CNN and BBC report on explosions and shootings in Kabul,
19:30 - The US government denies any involvement in the explosions in Kabul and
20:30 - blames Osama bin Laden.
For those who have just joined us, I remind you that it is night in Kabul; who, why and in what way destroys government buildings there remains unclear. But the world's attention is focused on the events in New York and Washington.
The official version of events states that the attack on the Pentagon was carried out by a Boeing 757-200 passenger plane belonging to American Airlines; approximately here such.
At 8:20 he took off from Dulles Airport on the route Washington - Los Angeles (flight 77), and at 8:50 he was allegedly captured in the air by terrorists who threatened either with paper knives or with the presence on board bombs.
Immediately after this, the plane allegedly turned around over Ohio to return to Washington to attack the Pentagon. But since by that time the plane's transponder (the answering machine for communicating with radars) was turned off, air traffic controllers lost it, so 36 minutes, undetected by anyone, Flight 77 allegedly flew towards Washington.
At 9:32 a.m., air traffic control at Dulles Airport notices a large, unidentified aircraft, and at 9:34 a.m. the order is issued to evacuate. The White house. At 9:35, Vice President Dick Cheney, according to him, is picked up by burly guys from the Secret Service and literally forcibly taken into an underground tunnel.
But this strange, large, incredibly fast and maneuverable plane, later identified as Flight 77, changes direction and crashes into the Pentagon building, precisely into the wing where repairs are being carried out and there are practically no personnel.
64 passengers on Flight 77 and 125 people in the Pentagon building are believed to have died as a result of this event.
To further the story, we need to briefly outline some technical data.
The Boeing 757 aircraft has the following characteristics:
Width (diameter) of the fuselage - 3.7 m;
Height (including rear vertical tail) - 13.56 m;
Fuselage length - 47 m;
Wing span - 38 m;
Total take-off weight - up to 123 tons;
Empty weight of the aircraft - 58 tons;
The power plant is two turbofan engines under the wings, weighing 5 tons each.
In general, this is a large passenger aircraft. If it flies past you at a distance of up to several kilometers, it is impossible to confuse it with anything else, except perhaps a different make or model of aircraft.
The Pentagon is the main headquarters of the US military department, the largest administrative building in the world. Located in the suburbs of Washington, on the banks of the Potomac River. Pentagon building is a huge equilateral pentagon, the length of the side side is 281 m, and the height (of five above-ground floors) is 23.5 m.
A simple geometric calculation shows that the ratio of the horizontal and vertical dimensions of this structure is 1:18.4.
Pentagon building represents five separate concentric pentagonal structures with transitions at the corners, which merge into larger structures on some internal faces. But since the attack hit the “classical” location of this complex, we are wondering what the internal structure of these rings is.
The construction dates of the Pentagon, falling during the Second World War, mark only the first stage in the creation of this superstructure. During the Cold War, this complex of buildings underwent serious modernization and strengthening at least twice, which were also designed to withstand damaging factors. nuclear explosions in case of war with the USSR.
In this photos the side cut of the first outer ring is clearly visible. This five-story building consists of small rooms, separated by very thick brick walls and reinforced concrete floors.
If the Los Angeles Times is correct, the Pentagon, as part of its modernization, was reinforced with "a grid of steel columns and beams to withstand bomb blasts." Apparently, they mean something like this columns.
And so, the official version claims that the Boeing-757 passenger plane,
hitting into the lower part of the outer ring, pierced three Pentagon rings through and through ring C
like this outlet, wherein
practically without damaging the facade and without leaving a single fragment of an airplane or human bodies either inside or outside the building.
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but this version only reminds me of the stories of Baron Munchausen.
Naturally, such an absurd story about the events in the Pentagon immediately caused a flurry of objections from skeptics and an entire army independent researchers. All their arguments against official version can be boiled down to three main considerations.
Firstly, what will poor America do if it suddenly begins to be attacked by some potential enemy, whose missiles and aircraft are not equipped with transponders with answering machines tuned to the FAA radar system? And after all, no one will give 36 minutes of time to build up and search for each such threat... In other words, the “loss” of a huge aircraft in the airspace of the east coast of the United States during the crisis situation in 2001 seems incredible.
Secondly, The method of hitting the Pentagon building with a hypothetical passenger plane is impossible from an aerobatic point of view. There is no way an aircraft like the Boeing 757 could reach the target at almost zero altitude in a big city with such accuracy and speed (about 900 km/h). In short, passenger planes don’t fly like that in principle, and even less so those piloted by some incompetent terrorists.
And finally Thirdly, an aircraft made of duralumin alloys and a carbon fiber front fuselage fairing does not penetrate through three huge buildings made of reinforced concrete and brick. Moreover, weapons that could do this do not exist in nature. Destroy any building to hell - that's welcome, but cut right through three powerful buildings, simultaneously causing a huge fire- this is not about our modern weapons...
These three main considerations have given rise to many books, articles, and films from hundreds and thousands of independent researchers and organizations. Their argument seems logical, complete and comprehensive.
As in the case assassination of President Kennedy, in the story of the attack on the Pentagon there is a number of contradictory testimonies that, even if one wants to, cannot be fit into a single logical hypothesis, remaining within the framework of the concepts of traditional physics.
For example, the first media reports about the explosions in the Pentagon were accompanied by such different assumptions that it was time to suspect that different witnesses saw different events.
Unlike the version that a plane hit the Pentagon (which was not announced immediately, but later became the main, official one), in the first minutes after the attack there was information that the attack was carried out either by a helicopter, or a cruise missile, or either a truck filled with explosives, or some explosions simply occurred in the Pentagon (in the form of a “brazen attack” according to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld).
In any case, none of the witnesses in the first minutes after the explosion spoke about the plane. To top it all off, there was serious panic on S. Washington Blvd when just before the explosion something several lamp posts were knocked down, flying over the heads of stunned drivers so low that, according to some witnesses, it even cut off the antenna on the jeep.
I do not accept the irony of some researchers regarding the fact that the lamp posts were later pulled out and thrown onto the roadway to create the actual base for the airplane version for the simple reason that in this case there would have to be a large army of witnesses to how and when this was done. But there are no such facts. After all, while the Pentagon was burning, heads turned in that direction automatically.
In addition, the highway was not closed to traffic, but only a ban was announced on filming the burning Pentagon, allegedly in order to preserve military secrets. The most resourceful witnesses captured precisely these fallen pillars, including in the background almost intact burning facade of the Pentagon building, on Cell phones and cameras immediately after the disaster.
After these pillars, on the way to the facade of the Pentagon, our object managed to destroy and at the same time set fire to transformer booth, located behind a small mesh fence.
Honest researchers rightly note that after such two additional collisions - with poles and a transformer - any aircraft, even a special cruise missile for fighting bunkers, must completely or partially destroy its aerodynamic planes, while losing at least part of its speed or altitude, which was already almost zero.
And further, at this zero altitude the object was able to penetrate through the three rings of the Pentagon at an angle of approximately 60 degrees relative to the plane of the facade, making rings C in the wall like this outlet.
On the way inside the rings E, D and C this object was able to make
Here such destruction,
and then - disappear in the courtyard between rings C and B.
I consider the surviving glass on the windows of the inner wall of ring C to be a very indicative fact for my hypothesis, a couple of meters from which something broke through a thick brick wall reinforced with reinforced concrete, the reinforcement from which sticks out in the hole. hole.
There is also such a moment in the official chronology of events.
At 10:10, i.e. at the same time with collapse of part of the outer ring The Pentagon, the eastern sector of US air defense prohibits its fighters from opening fire.
An interesting fact is the impressions of Dallas airport controllers, who, after a large unidentified mark appeared on their radar screens, first decided that “ this is one of those guys sent to protect our president", referring to a military fighter or interceptor.
But then, based on the size of the mark, they identified the object as a large passenger plane, which, however, cannot fly at such a high speed at such a low altitude, nor can it make such sharp turns. They were confused...
These are the basic facts. Let's now give the floor to David McGowan to pose the right questions:
« So what crashed into the Pentagon that morning? Is it really American Airlines Flight 77, which was absent from radar screens for half an hour and undetected by America's most advanced system? air defense, suddenly and inexplicably appeared in the skies over Washington?
Did it then perform a high-speed maneuver typically beyond the capabilities of a Boeing 757 (according to some eyewitnesses) and begin approaching the Pentagon at high speed and at such a ridiculously low altitude that it cut off a car antenna?
Did he really carefully twist five sturdy steel lampposts and slam one of his wings into a large generator and still maintain an arrow-straight and perfectly stable approach to the Pentagon?
And did it really then crash into the Pentagon with such enormous force that it was able to penetrate more than 300 feet (91 meters - stand.NET ) reinforced concrete obstacles standing at an angle? And he did all this without anyone capturing a single frame on film or videotape?
Or did something else crash into the Pentagon? Can we say with certainty that something actually crashed into the Pentagon? Was it all done with explosives planted inside and possibly outside the building? If so, what tore those lampposts out?
Can we hope to find answers to all the lingering questions surrounding the Pentagon attack? Or was this barrier built in such a way that it could not be taken? »
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 thousand employees scattered in 17 separate buildings in the District of Columbia, Day.Az reports with reference to the Russian Seven. Moreover, according to the technical specifications, the future citadel was supposed to comfortably accommodate 40 thousand people at the same time!
At an angle of 108 degrees
The Second was gaining momentum in Europe World War, which Americans could join at any time, and here is such an idea! It seems somehow illogical that all the key military commanders are under one roof. Even the top managers of Coca-Cola, who know the soda recipe, do not fly on the same plane. However, immediately after the president’s go-ahead, architects began to look for territory to build a citadel.
In Arlington, a suburb of Washington, they chose a place that had once been expropriated. Feng Shui masters would probably envy them. What was most captivating was that the plot of land was outlined by five roads, some of them intersecting at an angle of 108 degrees.
To most, of course, this could mean little, but the architects were strong in geometry, and they knew very well that straight lines converge at such a degree in an equilateral pentagon, which the ancient Greeks called the “pentagon.”
It will remain a mystery to us what came first - the place that the searchlights discovered, or the project for which the territory was specially selected. It must be said that the place was quite swampy, and very close to it was the famous Arlington Cemetery, where American soldiers were buried - not the best place for construction. Feng Shui masters would hardly have approved, but the US President probably knew more than Chinese geomancers - the land for construction was agreed upon. The only thing is that Roosevelt ordered - at the request of his wife - to move the future building slightly, by half a mile, so that it would not block the view from Arlington Cemetery to Washington.
"Let no geometrician enter"
As you know, at the entrance to the Academy of the philosopher Plato there 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 wholeheartedly accepted by capricious Platonists.
Few people know that the Pentagon is still the most optimal building in terms of ergonomics.
The building is intersected by ten corridors in the center, which connect five pentagons extending from the center. Thus, an employee of the American military department can get to any point of the building along the perimeter, spending no more than seven minutes.
Natural ergonomics is associated with the properties of the geometric figure itself. Thus, 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 ratio”. 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 seems to consist of an infinite number of pentagons, which are formed by the points of intersection of the diagonals.
This endless repetition of the same geometric figure creates a sense of rhythm and harmony that is unconsciously recorded by our minds.
Twelve Pentagons
However, it was probably not only ergonomic advantages that prompted the American military to opt for a regular pentagon shape. The symbolism itself played a big role. Let us turn again to Plato. The famous philosopher called the most perfect geometric body the dodecahedron - a dodecahedron made up of twelve pentagons. Plato claimed that it was he who "God used as a model for planning the Universe."
In 2003, when analyzing data from the WMAP spacecraft launched by NASA, it was hypothesized that the Universe is a dodecahedral Poincaré space. According to the modeling 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 a hypothesis has arisen among conspiracy theorists that the Pentagon building is only a visible part of the structure. They say that the entire structure is shaped like a dodecahedron, although the rest of the structure geometric body hidden from view underground. Of course, there is no way to check this. Any unknown excites the imagination.
Star pattern
Many experts in the field of astrology argued that the construction of the Pentagon could not have happened without consulting astrologers. Construction was planned to begin on September 11, 1941 and end on January 15, 1943.
It is curious that the builders met the deadlines, as they say, second by second, which in itself is an exceptional case - especially for wartime.
Astrologers noticed a certain “star” pattern in the start and end dates of construction. Their attention was drawn to the “planet of war” - Mars. Construction began when heavenly body was in its own 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 carried out only successful military operations in World War II.
This date mysteriously accompanies the Pentagon. On this day in 1941, construction of the building began, in 2001 the Pentagon was attacked by Boeing, and on September 11, 2002, the entire Pentagon territory came back into use.
One of the main improvements was the complete renovation of the building's windows, 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 no one has yet succeeded in unlocking the mystery of the “September 11” factor. It is curious that some hotheads, fascinated by the mysteries of the Pentagon, predict that two more September 11ths will have to 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 the one that has become public knowledge, is the terrorist attack on the Pentagon building on September 11, 2001. 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 naval forces. Part of the building collapsed and was seriously damaged. Interestingly, at the time of the strike, this particular wing of the Pentagon was undergoing redevelopment, and most of its employees were transferred to other offices. Almost immediately after the attack, dozens of comments appeared claiming that no plane crashed into the Pentagon. According to doubters, damage to the building was minimal after an attack by an aircraft weighing 100 tons, 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 also no traces of combustion on the grass from the huge volume of flaming 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 board was captured by terrorists.
Some analysts have 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 and without a warhead (explosives) - the ramming of an aircraft with almost full tanks, they say, should have almost completely destroyed the Pentagon. However, department officials do not comment on the opinions of amateurs. What can people know, even experts in explosives, 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 that allegedly did not crash go?
Numerology
While the Pentagon is stewing in the confined space of an endless number of internal pentagons, pentagrams, “flavored” with golden ratios, people outside are trying in vain to unravel their mysteries. Sometimes those who are dissatisfied with the official information of the US military department have to be content with cunning numerological calculations that give interesting results.
Thus, 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, using the same Pythagorean method, and decide to multiply the numbers (4X9X1), we will get - 36. If we do not rest on this number, we count the sum of all integers from 1 to 36, then we will get - 666.
Conspiracy theorists claim that it was for this number that the builders worked day and night, so as not to miss the deadline. But this way you can agree on anything. By the way, the pentagon with a 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 symbolized the harmony of the universe, but was also capable of having a harmonious effect on the surrounding space. The limits of influence, of course, depend on the size of the regular pentagon. Thus, the perimeter of the Arlington geometric figure is about 1405 meters - today this is enough to influence the whole world.
If we talk about which office building is the largest on the planet, the answer is simple: it is the Pentagon. Over the years of the existence of this pentagonal structure in the United States of America, the very name of the well-fortified complex began to be used as an alternative to the concept of “US Department of Defense.”
We often use the word “Pentagon” when thinking about the plans and operations of the American army, but not every reader is familiar with the history of the building.
When World War II began, in which, as is well known, American troops also took part, the US Department of Defense was located in a complex consisting of 17 buildings. A total of about 26 thousand people worked in these buildings. To be honest, it was difficult to call the US Department of Defense buildings a complex, because they were all scattered across different sites in the District of Columbia.
Immediately after the US authorities decided to enter World War II, the Department of Defense began implementing plans to recruit additional personnel. At the same time, personnel and other plans were, as they say, enormous, which means that additional office space would be required to implement them. In those 17 buildings that were operated by the main military department, there was no longer enough space for everyone.
To solve the emerging problem, the Chief Secretary of War of the United States, Henry Stimson, decided to personally appeal to American President Franklin Roosevelt with a request to allocate new areas for the defense department. This significant event for the United States took place in May 1941. After the request made by Henry Stimson, congressmen began to actively discuss whether or not to allocate additional territories for the Ministry of Defense. For natural reasons, it was decided to allocate it, but not in the District of Columbia, but in another place, because Washington was already overcrowded with administrative buildings.
During heated discussions, parliamentarians agreed that the best place for a new military department building could be the state of Virginia, which is separated from the District of Columbia by a river. Here was located locality, which is now widely known throughout the world. This is Arlington.
At the same meeting, congressmen determined the main parameters of the future construction. The new building must be such that about 40 thousand people can simultaneously stay in it without experiencing problems with space. At the same time, it was decided to build a grandiose parking lot for 10 thousand cars.
One decision that also needs to be mentioned was the decision on the height of the building. The building should have been no higher than 4 floors in height, which would have saved on metal structures. But to accommodate 40 thousand people in a four-story building without problems, the building must be an impressive length - several kilometers. This was impossible for a number of reasons.
1941 Sketch for the Pentagon
Firstly, it was difficult to find a relatively flat unused area of the appropriate length in Arlington, and, secondly, even if such a building were built, the US Department of Defense employees would clearly have communication difficulties: in order to get from one end of the building to the other, it could take up to several tens of minutes.
This is what led the sketch developers to create a project of a compact shape, shaped like a pentagon. For the implementation of this project, a significant amount of $35 million was allocated at that time.
The design of the project for the future building was carried out by George Bergstrom, a famous American architect in those years. John McShane, who at one time was involved in the construction of the Ronald Reagan Airport (then Washington National Airport), as well as the creation of the Jefferson Memorial, was appointed project manager.
For the construction project, an area was chosen that local residents called Arlington Farms. The farms were located in close proximity to the national cemetery. The area that was chosen for construction was wetlands due to the fact that it was adjacent to the Potomac River. It took enormous effort and considerable funds to improve these lands. To prevent swamps from causing problems during construction, 5 million cubic meters were delivered to Arlington. meters of land and almost 0.7 million tons of sand.
During the implementation of the project, it suddenly became clear that even these areas were not enough for the full implementation of the project. It was necessary to take extreme measures and demolish several dozen local manufacturing enterprises, and then clear the territory they occupied and use it for construction and other needs. Other needs were related to infrastructure. It was decided to border the future military center with roads based on the principle of transferring the form. The roads also converged in such a way that they formed a pentagon, which was called the Pentagon, giving the name to the military department building itself in the future.
In memory of those killed, the Pentagon was erected memorial Complex
On September 11 (coincidence?) 1941, construction of the building began. Construction work did not stop day or night. In December 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, construction began at an even more impressive pace. Within 16 months, the monolithic building was built. It was an example of architectural neoclassicism with simplicity of forms and technologies. The basis of the building, which neutralizes the influence of swampy terrain, are 41,492 concrete piles. Initially, they wanted to cover the building with marble tiles, but in those days marble could only be supplied to the USA in sufficient quantities, perhaps from Italy, and Italy was an ally. Nazi Germany. So they abandoned marble and decided to use Indiana limestone.
When they calculated the total cost of the new building, they were horrified. It turned out that it cost almost 2.5 times more than originally planned - more than 80 million dollars.
Geometrically, the building is a regular pentagon, the side length of which is exactly 281 m. The internal area is more than 0.6 million square meters. With such a huge area, getting from one room to another will not be a problem. It was calculated that to move between the two most distant rooms of the building, a person would need no more than 7 minutes when walking at low speed (there is no need to run headlong for this). The total area of the Pentagon corridors is more than 30 kilometers.
With the help of 21 bridges, pentagons of different levels are connected, forming the entire complex of buildings integrated together. The building has 23.5 meters above the ground plus two floors located underground. Inside the building you can count 131 stairs, 19 escalators and another 13 elevators. In the immediate vicinity of the building you can count several roads with a total length of about 50 thousand meters.
The pentagons have special names, making them easier to address within the Pentagon itself. So the inner ring is designated by the Latin letter A, and the outer one by E. Between them there are other pentagons.
If you think that only military specialists work in the building, then you are mistaken. Here, in addition to services involved in developing strategies for conducting combat operations and military exercises, financial structures reporting to the ministry and other specialized organizations, there are a large number of restaurants and eateries, flower shops and jewelry stores. One can imagine what kind of reaction would be caused by the presence of a shop selling diamonds in the building of the Russian Ministry of Defense (especially in light of recent corruption revelations).
The Pentagon has not only McDonald's and a pizzeria, but also a fitness center, relaxation rooms and special confectionery shops. Statistics, which, as we know, know everything, claim that on average, employees of the American military department consume about 5 thousand per day cups of coffee, 800 liters of milk, more than 7 thousand bottles of soda, as well as juices, ice cream, etc., etc.
The number of emails that arrive at the Pentagon email every day is in the hundreds of thousands. On average, that's about 1.2 million emails. And almost 2 hundred thousand calls to phones are recorded day and night.
An interesting fact is that the Pentagon building has almost twice as many toilets as the needs of employees require. You may ask: why? The fact is that the building was built when so-called segregation still existed in the United States. This is a form of discrimination that prevents one group of people from being in the same room at the same time as another, for example. It's about about the division of toilets into those that are prescribed for the use of whites, and those that are intended for blacks ... - excuse me, African Americans. However, the division itself never manifested itself, since President Roosevelt was outraged by segregation in the Pentagon building. As a result, the outrage subsided, but the toilets remained the same.
In the 90s, the Pentagon (as a building) was undergoing a large-scale modernization: the power supply systems were replaced, security was strengthened, and computers and communication systems were changed.
However, improving security systems did not protect the Pentagon from terrorist attacks. On September 11, 2001, a plane crashed into a building. The western wing of the Pentagon, which housed the Department of the US Army, was damaged. Then 125 people died (we are talking only about department employees). At the same time, an entire segment was completely destroyed, which required complete restoration. In addition to this, it was necessary to carry out restoration work on large area adjacent to the destroyed part of the building.
After restoration work, a memorial complex was erected near the Pentagon in memory of the victims of the September 11 tragedy.
Not everyone knows that they tried to blow up the Pentagon before 2001. In particular, in the 90s, unknown persons sent parcels containing bombs to the Pentagon. However, what the Pentagon suffered the most was not from direct attacks, but from attacks by hackers from all over the world. Recently, the United States has been concerned about the increase in the number of cyber attacks from China. To counter this, the electronic security system was completely revised and a system of special digital codes was introduced.
Today the Pentagon is also a real museum, which is visited annually by more than one hundred thousand tourists.
See also: Pentagon: