While still working on the Pentagon, Groves was also put in charge of the Manhattan Project, America’s successful effort to develop the world’s first atomic bomb. How Big Is the Pentagon? The Pentagon contains more than 6.6 million square feet of floor space, making it one of the largest buildings in the world. 1. Additional concessions to the war included the lack of bronze doors, plaques and any other touches that were deemed purely decorative. © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. IT’S SIMPLY ENORMOUS. Its width is shorter than the height of the Empire State building (the tallest building in the world from 1931 to 1972) by only 39 feet (about 12 meters). 5. Use sort function to rank by parameter. In an America still highly segregated by race, the Pentagon’s planners found it necessary to design the building with separate facilities for black and white employees, including “white” and “colored” cafeterias for the construction crews and 284 bathrooms, twice the number needed for the anticipated staff levels. About 6.6 million … While Somervell was officially in charge of the Pentagon project, it fell to one of his subordinates, the then Major Leslie Groves, to make it a reality. The 9/11 attacks occurred on the 60th anniversary of the groundbreaking. While the Pentagon only stands 77 feet (about 23.5 meters) tall, it is 1,414 feet (about 431 meters) wide. The same person oversaw both the Manhattan Project and the Pentagon’s construction. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. The idea of using Arlington Farms was soon scrapped, however, over concerns about the sensitivity of placing a military complex so close to the nation’s most hallowed ground, and President Roosevelt instead selected a site that had once been home to Hoover Field, the first airport to service the Washington, D.C., area. The Army Corps of Engineers built the Pentagon in only 16 months, from 11 September 1941 to 15 January 1943. It sits on 583 acres (about 2.4 million square meters) of land, which includes 200 acres of lawn (about 809,370 square meters) as well as 67 acres (about 271,140 square meters) of parking space. This was due, in part, to concerns over disrupting the scenic views to and from the Virginia site and Washington, D.C. On July 17, Somervell met with architect George Bergstrom, giving him just three days to come up with a design that would accommodate 40,000 employees and 10,000 cars. Approximately 33,000 people worked at the Pentagon during WWII. This speedy construction was costly, however: The project was initially budgeted at $35 million, but wound up costing $63 million, more than $900 million in today’s money. Plans were soon underway for an extensive reconstruction program, dubbed the Phoenix Project, which was completed in February 2003 at a cost of $5 billion—five times the cost of the original building. The building went up in record time. FCA US LLC Headquarters and Technology Center, List of tallest residential buildings in the world, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_largest_office_buildings&oldid=982685890, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 October 2020, at 18:02. It owes its unique shape to a different planned location. In 2012, the Pentagon reported having about 23,000 employees. There are a few reasons the building is so short. 6. The Pentagon's 17.5 miles (about 28 kilometers) of hallways was designed for efficiency so that people can walk between any two points within seven minutes. In fact, the U.S. Capitol could fit into just one of the building’s five sides, and with 5,100,000 square feet, it has twice the office space of the Empire State Building. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. At its completion at a cost of $83 million in January 1943, the Pentagon was the world’s largest office building, covering 29 acres (12 hectares)—including a 5-acre (2-hectare) central court—and containing roughly 3,700,000 square feet (344,000 square metres) of … Okay, you know this already, but how big is enormous? As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase The Pentagon is also often used as a metonym for the Department of Defense and its leadership. It owes its unique shape to a different planned location. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. From its opening, all facilities were open to both black and white employees, making the Pentagon, for a time, the only non-segregated building in Virginia. For those unable to physically walk the corridors on their own, the Department of Defense provides a fleet of scooters, or self-propelled vehicles (SPVs), that are allowed to zip around at up to 3 mph. Nearly 30,000 military and civilian personnel work inside the Pentagon each day. However, in June 1941 President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which prohibited segregation among federal employees. Check out nine facts about the complex that the U.S. Department of Defense calls home. 7. This is a list of largest office buildings in the world. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. The original choice was a sprawling stretch of land just to the east of Arlington Cemetery, on land that once belonged to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. 8. It’s pretty difficult to understand just how big the Pentagon is. At first, Virginia authorities, determined to enforce the regulations laid out in its Jim Crow-era Separation of Races law, insisted that the facility be segregated, before finally relenting and ceding control of the Pentagon to the federal government. Start your free trial today. Concrete was also used to build a series of ramps throughout the complex, which eliminated the need for steel-enforced elevators. When Dwight Eisenhower took up his position as army chief of staff after World War II ended, he got lost in the vast complex while on a walk and was forced to ask a group of stenographers for directions back to his own office. Its width is shorter than the height of the Empire State building (the tallest building in the world from 1931 to 1972) by only 39 feet (about 12 meters). Instead of steel, the building was built primarily of reinforced concrete, 435,000 cubic yards of it. And while it is possible to get from the furthest points in under 10 minutes, that requires taking a shortcut through the open courtyard at the center of the complex (known as Ground Zero), and walking very fast. Groves oversaw the day-to-day construction of the site, successfully dealing with a series of strikes and managing the many strong-willed military figures exerting pressure on him to complete the project ahead of time. 4. A symbol of American military strength, the concrete and steel building is recognized around the world. At the time, the tract was managed by the Department of Agriculture, which ran an experimental farm on the land. 2. The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with about 6,500,000 sq ft (600,000 m 2), of which 3,700,000 sq ft (340,000 m 2) are used as offices. Arlington Farms was bound by access roads, forming a slightly irregular pentagon shape. There was also a more practical reason–the steel shortage already underway in a nation girding for war. The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. Twenty yeas after the war, these settlements were uprooted, and several predominately black neighborhoods, including Queen City and the seedier, red-light district of Hell’s Bottom, formed nearby in what became known as East Arlington. As the ranks of the War Department continued to swell, they began to branch out across the city, and were eventually being housed in 17 different buildings. Nearly 200 people lost their lives in the attack, though the recently installed security improvements that were part of the renovation project, including reinforcing the building’s concrete and installing blast-proof windows and walls, undoubtedly saved hundred of lives. In early 1941, Brigadier General Brehorn Somervell, head of the construction branch of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, was tasked with finding a permanent solution to the space problem. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! On September 11, 2001, the Pentagon was nearing the end of its first full-scale renovations when American Airlines Flight 77 smashed into the building’s east side, which was unoccupied due to the construction. Construction wrapped up on January 15, 1943. In the 1930s, a large complex was commissioned and constructed in Washington’s D.C. Foggy Bottom neighborhood to house the ever-growing U.S. War Department, but before it was even completed, the army determined it to be too small for its needs (this building is now home to the U.S. State Department). There are twice as many bathrooms as necessary. Because of its size, the Pentagon has six ZIP codes. The building itself covers 29 acres (about 117,360 square meters) including a 5 acre courtyard (about 20,235 square meters) in its center. The Pentagon was built on land occupied by the descendants of former slaves. Several sites were considered for the new military complex. One of Somervell’s first dictates was that the massive building be no taller than five stories (plus two stories below ground). The demand for office space was so great that the first workers moved in before the complex was fully finished, and many employees found themselves working in offices without walls and travelling around the complex on wooden planks laid across open construction pits. 9. As it was too late to start a new design process, the pentagon shape remained, though its five sides were straightened and smoothed to the more standard form we know today. Groves was involved in nearly every aspect of the top-secret project, selecting and constructing clandestine sites for the research facilities and its workers across the country. It’s been estimated that under normal circumstances, construction should have taken four years—the Pentagon went up in just 16 months. Much of the filler for this concrete was dredged from the grounds around the Pentagon itself, including the Potomac River. During the Civil War, a settlement known as Freedman’s Village sprung up on Robert E. Lee’s former estate, as escaped slaves made their way to the non-Union held territory. Several sites were considered for the new … Covering approximately 6.5 million square feet, the building contains a food court and mini-shopping mall. 3. It was actually the second complex built for the military during FDR’s presidency. When the Pentagon’s planners realized that the original site selected for the massive complex was not large enough, the government agreed to evict more than 150 families from East Arlington and appropriate their land. The groundbreaking ceremony was held on September 11, 1941, and work quickly got underway, with more than 15,000 workers on site around the clock. The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with about 6,500,000 sq ft (600,000 m2), of which 3,700,000 sq ft (340,000 m2) are used as offices. While the Pentagon only stands 77 feet (about 23.5 meters) tall, it is 1,414 feet (about 431 meters) wide.