The Pentagon

thumb|The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase The Pentagon is also often used as a metonym for the Department of Defense and its leadership. Located in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the building was designed by American architect George Bergstrom and built by contractor John McShain. Ground was broken on 11 September 1941, and the building was dedicated on 15 January 1943. The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with about 6.5 million square feet (150 acres; 60 ha) of floor space, of which 3.7 million sq ft (85 acres; 34 ha) are used as offices. Some 23,000 military and civilian employees, and another 3,000 non-defense support personnel, work in the Pentagon. Quotes We could never get a grip on it. It made you crazy. When you deal with the Pentagon, you go into a world of mirrors. It was a morass. Impossible to figure out. Samuel Hoskinson, quoted from Bass, G. J. (2014). The Blood telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a forgotten genocide. [T]here is another famous pentagon. It is the headquarters of the U.S. [military] agencies... [A] story...says that the origin... had... to do with... the field upon which... [it] was built was a pentagon in shape.., but we know better than to believe stories coming out of the pentagon. ...It's much more likely that this pentagon has... to do with the fact that the pentagon was the symbol of magicians. The Magic Circles are... [T]he Pentacle Club is the club of magicians... associated with... mystical things in the past. The pentagon was a... universal symbol of mystery. ...[I]t's not coincidental ...that the U.S. defense agencies hide behind that symbol. Michael Atiyah, The Role of Beauty in Mathematics (Nov 10, 2015) University of Edinburgh, Trinity College, Cambridge, Royal Society of Edinburgh. A YouTube video source: (Dec 1, 2015) 14:01. External links Category:Buildings and structures in the United States