What is in the center of the Pentagon. Pentagon: the most mysterious building on earth. Toilets by skin color
On January 15, 1943, the construction of the Pentagon, the largest and most ergonomic building in the world, was completed - the journey between the two most distant points takes no more than seven minutes. We decided to recall other interesting facts about this building
Photo: shutterstock.com
2014-01-14 13:39
Pentagon in numbers
The Pentagon is located in Arlington, Virginia. The Pentagon building occupies 116 thousand square meters, in addition, another 5.1 acres (21 thousand square meters) is occupied by the courtyard. The pentagonal building of the Pentagon has five facades - this feature owes its name to the title (“penta” in Greek means “five”). The length of each of the five sides of the building is 281 meters, the perimeter is about 1405 meters, the total length of the corridors is 28 kilometers, and the total area of the five floors is 604,000 square meters. The building has five above-ground and two underground floors, the height of the above-ground part is 23.5 meters. Thanks to the successful layout of the building, the journey between the two most distant points takes no more than seven minutes. Construction of the Pentagon began in 1941, took approximately 16 months, and cost American taxpayers $83 million. Despite the huge size of the building, it employs fewer people than the average Chinese factory, namely 26,000 people. However, the Pentagon still makes more than 200,000 phone calls and sends more than 40,000 letters a day.
Pentagon uniform
The pentagonal shape of the building was suggested by the plan of the area when the sketches of the project were created. There were several roads in that place that intersected at an angle of 108 degrees, and this is the angle of the pentagon. Therefore, this form organically fit into the transport infrastructure, and the project was approved. But after some time, the president decided that the future building would block the view of Washington, so the construction site was moved downstream of the Potomac River, leaving the design itself unchanged.
"Epicenter"
Inside the building there is a courtyard that houses a grocery store that serves department employees and grows mainly oak trees. According to local legend, during the Cold War, Soviet military analysts assumed that there was a bunker under this small building: spy satellites recorded that a large number of people were constantly entering and exiting it. In this regard, Soviet nuclear missiles were allegedly aimed directly at the grocery store. Because of this, he received the ominous name "Epicenter".
Toilets by skin color
There are more toilets in the Pentagon than is really necessary. But they were designed and built for a reason. It was assumed that there would be separate bathrooms for whites and African Americans. However, the signs "toilet for blacks" and "toilet for whites" never appeared, due to the intervention of President Roosevelt.
Terrorist act
According to official figures, on September 11, 2001, at 9:37:46 a.m., a terrorist attack was carried out on the Pentagon. Allegedly, a Boeing 757-200 flew into it and crashed into the outer left wing. This wing houses the command of the naval forces. Part of the building collapsed, it was seriously damaged. About 30 people survived in the wing where the plane crashed, one person survived in the place of direct impact.
A memorial was created in the restored wing in memory of the fallen employees of the Ministry of Defense and the passengers of the aircraft. The memorial near the Pentagon building is being built in the form of a park with 184 benches facing the building. During the renovation of the Pentagon in 2001-2002, a small internal chapel was set up at the site where Flight 77 crashed.
Perhaps one of the most famous buildings in the world is the Pentagon, built in the shape of a pentagon (Greek) - a geometric figure with five corners in the form of a regular pentagon, from which, in fact, its name comes from. It was built back in 1943, but to this day the Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. In continuation of the post, I have collected some unique facts about this building that can really surprise you.
This building was not built for the Ministry of Defense.
The construction of the Pentagon is certainly not ancient history, but it has already entered the history of America. The fact is that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt never intended to use the Pentagon building as an office for the Department of Defense. In the 1930s, another building was built specifically for the Ministry of Defense for the departments of the military and naval departments, but they quickly outgrew the premises in the building. Then Roosevelt allocated the Pentagon building for the Department of Defense, which can accommodate 40,000 employees and 10,000 cars. The old War Department Building currently houses the US Department of State.
Bigger than the Empire State Building.
With an area of 474,300 square meters, the Pentagon has twice as much office space as the Empire State Building in New York.
The Pentagon was built on the site of a slum called "Lower Hell".
The Pentagon was built on the site of the poor black suburbs known as "Lower Hell". After the Civil War, the area was settled by former slaves. Prostitution flourished here and there were red-light districts.
It was nicknamed "Ground Zero" during the Cold War.
During the Cold War, the Pentagon was called Ground Zero. It got this name because if there was a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, then nuclear missiles would destroy the Pentagon in the first place.
28 kilometers...
Just walking around the Pentagon can be quite tired. The fact is that in total the Pentagon has corridors with a length of 28 kilometers. In fact, the building is a real labyrinth. General Eisenhower once got lost in the Pentagon while trying to find his office.
Repair.
Since the Pentagon opened its doors in 1943, only one of them has been overhauled. The renovation lasted 17 years and ended in 2011. Luckily, it didn't cost too much for such a building - the entire renovation cost the agency $4.5 billion.
Only 5 floors.
The Pentagon is only 5 stories high. This design for the building was chosen to save steel for the needs of the army during World War II, which was in full swing during its construction. The architects also made it not very tall, because they did not want to spoil the view of the capital across the Potomac River.
There is no lift.
There are no elevators in the Pentagon. All movement between floors is carried out using ramps. It was also originally done to save steel during World War II.
The construction was completed in record time.
The Pentagon building is actually huge and very massive, it's hard to think that its construction could be completed very quickly. But it's not. In fact, General Leslie Groves R. (who also oversaw the Manhattan Project) built the Pentagon in just two years.
There are many toilets in the Pentagon.
The Pentagon currently has twice as many latrines as it actually needs. This happened because it was built during American segregation and the builders needed to equip separate latrines for white and black workers.
The Pentagon is one of the most famous buildings in the world. You can’t just get such a status if you can’t boast of a couple of interesting facts that most people don’t even know about. Well, the Pentagon can boast of such facts. So…
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1. During construction, it was not intended that the building would be used as the headquarters of the US Department of Defense.
US President Franklin Roosevelt never planned to use the Pentagon building as the headquarters of the Department of Defense. In the 1930s he commissioned the construction of another building for the military and naval departments, but it quickly became too small for its size. It was then that the president ordered the construction of a new building to accommodate 40,000 employees and 10,000 vehicles. Now the State Department is located in the building of the old military department.
2. The Pentagon is bigger than the Empire State Building.
The total office space of the Pentagon is 473,805 sq. m, which is almost twice as much as the Empire State Building in New York.
3. The Pentagon was built on the "Day of Hell".
The Pentagon was built on the site of a poor black neighborhood called the Bottom of Hell. After the Civil War, former slaves settled here. The area was considered a kind of red-light district.
4. During the Cold War, the Pentagon was nicknamed Ground Zero.
Long before the September 11 attacks, after which the English word Ground Zero began to be called the twin towers, the Pentagon was called that. It was assumed that if a nuclear war with the USSR did start, the first missiles would hit the Pentagon.
5. 17.5 miles.
Walking around the Pentagon is in itself a great way to shed a few pounds. In total, the Pentagon has 17.5 miles (28 km) of corridors. In general, this building is a real labyrinth. It is said that General Eisenhower once got lost while trying to find his office.
6. Renovations.
Since the Pentagon opened its doors in 1943, it has experienced only one renovation. It took 17 years to complete and ended in 2011. Fortunately, only $4.5 billion was spent on it. Not bad, right?
7. The height is only five floors.
The Pentagon has only 5 floors. This was done in order to preserve the World War II steel, which was used with might and main during the construction of the building. The designers also didn't want to spoil the view of the Capitol across the Potomac River.
8. No elevators.
There are no elevators in the Pentagon. Moving between floors occurs with the help of ladders. This was also done because of the savings in steel during World War II.
9. Completed in record time.
The Pentagon is so big that it's hard to believe that it could have been completed quickly. But it is so. General Leslie R. Groves supervised the construction of the Pentagon and completed his task in just 2 years.
10. Plenty of toilets.
Now the Pentagon has twice as many toilets as it needs. And all because it was built during the segregation, when they needed separate latrines for black and white employees.
Perhaps, on Earth today we will not find another building that can compete in "mysteriousness" with the Pentagon. It's all about the shape...
treasured place
Somewhere in 1940, the American administration had a crazy idea - to place the entire US Department of Defense in one building. And this is no less than 26,000 employees scattered in 17 separate buildings in the District of Columbia. Moreover, according to the terms of reference, 40 thousand people should have comfortably accommodated in the future citadel at the same time!
In Europe, the Second World War was gaining momentum, to which the Americans could join at any moment, but here is such an idea! It somehow turns out illogical - all the key military commanders under one roof. Even the top managers of Coca-Cola, who know the recipe for soda, do not fly in the same plane. Nevertheless, the architects immediately after the president's go-ahead began to look for a territory for the construction of the citadel.
In Arlington, a suburb of Washington, they chose a place that had once been expropriated. Feng Shui masters would certainly envy them. Most captivating was that the piece of land was delineated by five roads, some of which intersected at 108-degree angles.
To most, of course, this could not say much, but architects are strong in geometry, and they knew very well that lines converge at such a degree in an equilateral pentagon, which the ancient Greeks called the "pentagon".
For us, it will remain a mystery what came first - the place that the searchlights discovered, or the project for which the territory was specially selected. I must say that the place was decently swampy, and very close to it was the famous Arlington Cemetery, where American soldiers were buried - not the best place for construction. The feng shui masters would hardly have approved, but the US president probably knew more than the Chinese geomancers - the land for construction was agreed upon. The only thing Roosevelt ordered - at the request of his wife - was to slightly move, half a mile, the future building so that it would not block the view from Arlington Cemetery to Washington.
golden ratio
As you know, at the entrance to the Academy of the philosopher Plato hung the motto "Let no geometer enter." Today we can confidently say that the authors of the building of the American department would have been heartily received by capricious Platonists.
Few people know that the Pentagon is still the most optimal structure in terms of ergonomics.
The building is crossed by ten corridors in the center, which connect five pentagons coming from the center. So, an employee of the American military department can get to any point of the building along the perimeter, spending no more than seven minutes on it.
Natural ergonomics is associated with the properties of the geometric figure itself. So, the diagonals of the pentagon form a pentagram, and the points of intersection of the diagonals in a regular pentagon are always the points of the "golden section". At the same time, they form another pentagon, which, when drawing diagonals, will certainly form another one. And so on ad infinitum.
Thus, the pentagon, as it were, consists of an infinite number of pentagons, which are formed by the intersection points of the diagonals.
This endless repetition of the same geometric figure creates a sense of rhythm and harmony, which is unconsciously fixed by our mind.
The center of the world
However, probably not only ergonomic advantages prompted the US military to opt for a regular pentagon figure. The symbolism itself played a big role. Let's go back to Plato. The famous philosopher called the dodecahedron the most perfect geometric body - a dodecahedron made up of twelve pentagons. Plato claimed that it was him that "God used to plan the universe as a model."
In 2003, while analyzing data from NASA's WMAP spacecraft, it was hypothesized that the universe is a dodecahedral Poincaré space. According to simulation data, the results of observations indicated that the Universe is a set of infinitely repeating dodecahedrons - regular polyhedra, the surface of which is formed by 12 pentagons.
It is curious that among conspiracy theorists a hypothesis has arisen that the Pentagon building is only a visible part of the structure. They say that the structure is completely in shape exactly a dodecahedron, however, the rest of the geometric body is hidden from view underground. Of course, this cannot be verified. Any uncertainty excites fantasies.
Pentagon Horoscope
Many experts in the field of astrology argued that the construction of the Pentagon was not without the advice of astrologers. The construction was planned to begin on September 11, 1941 and finish on January 15, 1943.
It is curious that the deadlines were met by the builders, as they say, second to second, which in itself is an exceptional case - especially for wartime.
Astrologers noticed a certain "star" pattern in the dates of the start and end of construction. Their attention was drawn to the "planet of war" - Mars. Construction began when this celestial body was in its sign - Aries, and ended when Mars was in its exaltation (maximum strength) - Scorpio. It is curious that after the commissioning of the Pentagon, the American army conducted only successful military operations in World War II.
Triple 9/11
This date mysteriously accompanies the Pentagon. On this day in 1941, the construction of the building began, in 2001 the Pentagon was attacked by a Boeing, and on September 11, 2002, the entire territory of the Pentagon was put back into operation.
One of the main improvements was the complete renovation of the windows of the building, replacing them with armored ones. The outer walls of the building were reinforced and made blast resistant. The elevators leading to the metro station were closed and general security measures were significantly increased.
Conspiracy theorists are trying to look for patterns in this coincidence, but so far no one has been able to open the mystery of the September 11 factor. It is curious that some hotheads, fascinated by the mysteries of the Pentagon, predict that in the "biography" of the object two more September 11ths must happen in order to symbolically complete the regular pentagon.
Was there a Boeing?
But the main mystery, at least that has become public knowledge, is the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon building. According to official data, on this day, at 9:37:46, the left wing of the US military building was rammed by a Boeing 757-200. This wing houses the command of the naval forces. Part of the building collapsed and was seriously damaged. Curiously, at the time of the strike, it was this wing of the Pentagon that was undergoing redevelopment, and most of the employees from it were transferred to other offices. Almost immediately after the attack, dozens of comments appeared claiming that no plane had crashed into the Pentagon. According to the doubters, the damage to the building is minimal after being attacked by a 100-ton aircraft moving at a speed of at least 300 km per hour.
“On the site in front of the wall, not only is there no debris, but there are no traces of burning on the grass from the huge volume of blazing fuel from the (presumably) destroyed aircraft tanks,” the experts write.
In addition, after any plane crash, even the most terrible, there are always recognizable remains of parts of the fuselage. In the case of the Pentagon, according to official information, all the remains of the Boeing were melted down in a fire. Miraculously, only the black box survived, the records of which proved that the plane had been hijacked by terrorists.
Some analysts put forward the version that the nature of the destruction of the Pentagon is more consistent with an attack by a Tomahawk cruise missile without a warhead, without a warhead (explosives) - ramming an aircraft with almost full tanks, they say, should have almost completely destroyed the Pentagon. However, employees of the department do not comment on the opinions of amateurs. What can people, even experts in explosives, know about the supernatural properties of the geometric figure of an equilateral pentagon? "Let no geometer enter!" And then, how can these doubters explain, where did the passengers of the plane, which allegedly did not crash, go?
Entertaining arithmetic
While the Pentagon is boiling in a closed space of an infinite number of internal pentagons, pentagrams, "flavored" with golden sections, people outside are trying in vain to unravel their riddles. Sometimes those who are dissatisfied with the official information of the US military department have to be content with cunning numerological calculations that give entertaining results.
So, the Pentagon was built in 491 days. If, according to the Pythagorean method, we add these numbers (4 + 9 + 1), then we get - 5 (the number of sides of the pentagon). If we go further, according to the same Pythagorean method, and decide to multiply the numbers (4X9X1), then we get - 36. If we do not calm down on this number, we calculate the sum of all integers from 1 to 36, then we get - 666.
Conspiracy theorists claim that it was for the sake of this number that the builders worked day and night, so as not to overwhelm the deadlines. But you can agree on anything that way.
By the way, the pentagon with the pentagram enclosed in it was a symbol of the famous Pythagorean mystical union founded by the ancient Greek thinker. So, the Pythagoreans believed that their emblem not only symbolizes the harmony of the universe, but is also capable of exerting a harmonious effect on the surrounding space. The boundaries of influence, of course, depend on the size of the regular pentagon. So, the perimeter of the Arlington geometric figure is about 1405 meters - this is enough today to influence the whole world.
January 15, 1943 completed the construction of the Pentagon - the building that housed the US Department of Defense. The structure was designed in the form of a pentagon, hence its name, borrowed from the Greek language. We will tell you some more interesting facts about the Pentagon
Territory.
The idea to build a building that would shelter the US Department of Defense under one roof appeared in 1941. On September 2, President Roosevelt gave official approval for construction near Hoover Airport in Arlington, although World War II was already raging in Europe. Interestingly, the neighboring slums, as well as pawnshops, factories, one hundred and fifty houses and other buildings, were simply demolished to clear the area for the Pentagon. Later 1.2 sq. km of land were transferred to the Arlington National Cemetery and Fort Mayer, and 1.1 square meters remained for the Pentagon. km.
Building parameters.
The Pentagon building is equilateral. The length of each side is the same and equal to 281 meters 5 centimeters, and the perimeter is one and a half kilometers. If you add up the total length of the corridors of the structure, you get a very impressive figure - 28 km. The area of the five above-ground floors of the Pentagon is 604 thousand square meters. meters. It is noteworthy that the building does not end with the above-ground part, the height of which is 23.5 meters, there are two more floors underground.
The most ergonomic building.
Despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since the construction of the Pentagon, it is still considered the most ergonomic in the world. The fact is that you can get to any point of the structure along the perimeter in just seven minutes. The building itself is crossed by 10 corridors in the center, which unite 5 pentagons coming from the center.
The Pentagon is famous for its large number of toilets.
From the very beginning, the Pentagon project provided more toilets than was necessary. The mystery lies in the racial division that existed in those days. It is today that we can see how American soldiers of different races fight side by side, but back in 1943, this was still far away. Therefore, they built separate toilets for whites and African Americans. It's good that they didn't hang the appropriate signs on the doors. Only in 1948 the racial segregation of the army was abolished.
Construction cost.
Construction of the Pentagon lasted approximately sixteen months and cost American taxpayers $83 million - a huge amount of money at the time. If you translate the amount into today's money, it will still turn out decently - about 300 million US dollars.
Amount of workers.
The size of the Pentagon is impressive, but not as many people work in it as it might seem - about 26 thousand. Notably, the average Chinese factory has more employees. Yet the Pentagon makes more than 200,000 phone calls and sends more than 40,000 letters daily.
"Epicenter".
The Pentagon has a courtyard that houses a grocery store that serves employees of the department. It was around him that legends began to be composed, moreover, associated with the Russians. During the Cold War, Soviet military analysts speculated that there was a bunker underneath this small building. They made such a conclusion because, according to the testimony of satellites, a large number of people passed through it. So the story was formed, they say, the Soviet military aimed nuclear missiles directly at the grocery store. Because of this, he received the ominous name "epicenter".
The shops.
In the lobby of the building there are many shops, offices of banks and other organizations serving the employees of the ministry. There are flower, confectionery and jewelry stores, cafes and restaurants of world famous chains: McDonald's, Starbucks, Subway, Sbarro, KFC, Panda Express, Pizza Hut and others. As the Americans joke, this is in order to appease the disgruntled wives of the military with different goodies, decorations, because, as you know, the military often lingers at work.
A few more numbers.
More than fifty kilometers of roads were built for convenient access to the Pentagon.
The net area of offices and warehouses is 320 thousand square meters.
Between the concentric rings of the Pentagon, 21 bridges have been built.
The Pentagon building has 131 stairs, 19 escalators, 13 elevators.
There are 7,754 windows in the five above-ground floors of the Pentagon.
The US Department of Defense building has 672 fire shields, 284 toilets, and 691 drinking fountains.
Hackers.
The Pentagon's official website has several mirrors. This is due to the fact that the website and computer network of the US Department of Defense are constantly being attacked by hackers, about six thousand a day.