7 Crazy Facts About The Pentagon

Sarah Benecke | March 30, 2015
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The Pentagon is the home to the Department of Defense and is located in Arlington County, Virginia.

There are approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees along with about 3,000 non-defense support personnel. The Pentagon has five floors above ground and two basement levels.  

1. There are a ton of bathrooms

When the Pentagon was being built the United States was still segregated by race, therefore, planners designed the building to have separate bathrooms for black and white employees. There are 284 bathrooms within the Pentagon.

Via History

 

2. The building was finished in record time

The groundbreaking for the Pentagon took place on September 11, 1941 and finished on January 15, 1943. Under normal circumstances construction should have taken 4 years to complete but because the demand for office space was so great 15,000 works worked around the clock to get it done as fast as they could.

Via History

 

3. The Pentagon is bigger than the Empire State Building

The Pentagon has 5,100,000 square feet of office space. This means that the Pentagon has double the amount of office space that the Empire State Building has.

Via Viranva

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4. The Pentagon has no elevators

To get from floor to floor you have to use ramps since there are no elevators in the Pentagon. This was done to conserve steel for World War II.

Via Viranva

 

5. The Pentagon was nicknamed “Ground Zero” during the Cold War

Before the attacks on September 11, 2001, the Pentagon was known as “Ground Zero” because if nuclear war broke out it was believed that the Soviets would target the Pentagon first.

Via Viranva

 

6. The Pentagon is 17.5 Miles long

When you total up all the corridors the Pentagon has 17.5 miles long. General Eisenhower once got lost in the Pentagon trying to find his office.  

Via Viranva

 

7. The same man who oversaw the Pentagon’s construction also oversaw the Manhattan Project

Major Leslie Groves oversaw the day-to-day construction of the Pentagon. Major Groves was also put in charge of the Manhattan Project, which successfully developed the world’s first atomic bomb.

Via History

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