Slashdot Mirror
How the Pentagon Got Its Shape
Pcol writes "The Washington Post is running a story on the design process for the Pentagon building and why it ended up with its unusual shape. In July 1941 with World War II looming, a small group of army officers met to consider a secret plan to provide a permanent home for War Department headquarters containing 4 million square feet of office space and housing 40,000 people. The building that Brig. Gen. Brehon Burke Somervell, head of the Army's Construction Division, wanted to build was too large to fit within the confines of Washington DC and would have to be located across the Potomac River in Arlington. "We want 500,000 square feet ready in six months, and the whole thing ready in a year," the general said adding that he wanted a design on his desk by Monday morning. The easiest solution, a tall building, was out because of pre-war restrictions on steel usage and the desire not to ruin Washington's skyline. The tract selected had a asymmetrical pentagon shape bound on five sides by roads or other divisions so the building was designed to conform to the tract of land. Then with objections that the new building would block views from Arlington National Cemetery, the location was moved almost one-half mile south. The building would no longer be constructed on the five-sided Arlington Farm site yet the team continued with plans for a pentagon at the new location. In the rush to complete the project, there was simply no time to change the design."
That's a pretty good cover story. Really they had to radiation-shield the pentagram that locks down the devil at its center, with lots of authoritarian human bodies to absorb the extremely high frequencies that scorch souls.
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make install -not war
Next up - "what part of George's anatomy inspired the Washington Monument".
Kevin Smith on Prince
..."Rectangle", "Quadrilateral", and "Square", tested poorly in focus groups.
wow an anti-conspiracy theory guy on Slashdot? I didn't think you guys existed.
Bobo Mahoney
Trivia: the Pentagon was constructed without regard for the curvature of the Earth. That's right, they just flattened the site out without even considering the effects of the curvature of the Earth.
This is proof that the Flat Earth Society was working in league with the Satanists and the Teamsters to create the cold war. Stalin was in on it, and so was Eisenhower and Truman. Pudge knows, but he's not saying. He's avoiding military service, because if he were caught by the terrorists in Iraq and the secret got out, it would be the end of our way of life. I salute you, Pudge, for keeping our secrets safe within the borders of the nation, and away from the terrorists in Iraq. Such a brave man.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
wow an anti-conspiracy theory guy on Slashdot? I didn't think you guys existed. - it is, of-course, a conspiracy.
You can't handle the truth.
I totally agree. Like all open source ventures, the quality just isn't there. The proprietary masons would have done it properly.
It's not wasting time, I'm educating myself.
Screw the pentagon, i want to know how this military building got its shape.
Well, there is a reason for those five pages. The site was restricted originaly by speed of the internet, but then it was moved to another server. The team continued with plans for five at the new location. In the rush to complete the project, there was simply no time to change the design.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
You know, America's lateness in WW-II used to always bother me.
Then I realized -- the new "pro-active" America bothers me a LOT MORE.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?