Monday, August 3, 2015

House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power







The Pentagon is the head office of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington Region, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the U.S. Division of Defense.

The Pentagon was created by American engineer George Bergstrom (1876-- 1955), as well as built by general professional John McShain of Philadelphia. Ground was broken for construction on September 11, 1941, and the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943. General Brehon Somervell offered the major objective power behind the project; Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for supervising the job for the united state Army.

The Pentagon is a large 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. Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support workers work in the Pentagon. It has 5 sides, 5 floorings over ground, two basement levels, and also five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 mi (28.2 km) of corridors. The Pentagon consists of a five-acre (20,000 m2) central plaza, which is shaped like a pentagon and informally known as "ground zero," a nickname originating during the Cold War on the presumption that it would be targeted by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of nuclear war.

On September 11, 2001, exactly 60 years after the structure's renovation began, American Airlines Air travel 77 was hijacked and flown right into the Western side of the structure, killing 189 people including the 5 hijackers. It was the first considerable international assault on the capital's governmental facilities since the burning of Washington during the War of 1812.

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