The Pentagon

The Pentagon, the five-sided headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. It covers an area of 11.74 hectares (29 acres) and is one of the largest office buildings in the world. It consists of five concentric pentagons around a center courtyard. The Pentagon was designed by the American architect George Edwin Bergstrom and was built by U.S. Army engineers from 1941 to 1943. It was built to bring all of the offices of what was then the Department of War together in one building. The Pentagon now contains the offices for the departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and for the Office of the Secretary of Defense. It employs about 23,000 workers, who are almost equally divided between military personnel and civilians. It also houses a shopping center, a large food-service area, bus and taxi terminals, and a heliport. The name Pentagon is also popularly applied to the Department of Defense itself. In September 2001 a hijacked airplane was crashed into the Pentagon, causing extensive damage to the western portion of the building. A total of 189 people were killed, including 125 working in the building at the time and all of the 58 passengers and 6 crew members aboard the hijacked jet. The damaged portion of the Pentagon was rebuilt within a year and dedicated in June 2002.