Art, literature & culture

Construction of The Pentagon

15 January 1943

The Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. Its five-sided shape, which gave it its name, was designed by the architect George Bergstrom under great time pressure as the United States prepared for the Second World War. Construction began in September 1941 and was overseen by the Army officers Brehon Somervell and Leslie Groves, who later led the Manhattan Project. When finished it was among the largest office buildings in the world, housing tens of thousands of workers. On 11 September 2001, hijackers flew an airliner into its western side, killing everyone aboard and many inside the building.

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