INSIDE THE PENTAGON

Explore the US Department of Defense’s headquarters and discover the many high-security areas this iconic building houses

In Virginia, near Washington DC, the headquarters of all the United States’ military defence departments combine to form a super-secure and highly surveilled base. The pentagon-shaped building covers an area of over 500,000 square metres, where 30,000 people work to keep the country safe. Built to withstand almost any attack, the concrete-and-steel structure contains five pentagon-shaped rings within one another and has a total of seven floors, both above and below ground.

The Army, Navy and Air Force are all based in this substantial building, which was built between 1941 and 1943. Prior to its construction, the offices for the US military departments were spread across 17 different locations. With their expansion during World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the construction of the Pentagon to bring all of these departments under one roof.

Tasked with this immense project, lead architect George Edwin Bergstrom needed to ensure neither space nor safety were compromised in his design. Because of the surrounding roads at the original site and a requirement to limit the building’s height so as not to block views of Washington, Bergstrom planned the construction of an irregularly shaped five-sided ring. The site was later moved 0.75 miles further south so there was room to make the building symmetrical. Even though the new area had fewer roads to restrict the space, the unique shape was kept so that the Pentagon could be built quickly.