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."

Cheney's House

[Doc Ruby]

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.

How the Pentagon Got Its Shape

[SpaghettiPattern]

How the Pentagon Got Its Shape... (It's pentagonal.)
This vividly reminds me of "the time when the milkman was 47 minutes late" [wikipedia.org]

Re:How the Pentagon Got Its Shape

[trolltalk.com]

Next up - "what part of George's anatomy inspired the Washington Monument".

Get Your Priorities Straight

[Anonymous Coward]

from the yay-holiday-weekends dept.

Apparently, Taco can cheer for a long weekend, but he completely neglects the reason for it. Today is Memorial Day, where we pay tribute and honor those that gave their lives for their country, so that we can continue to live in freedom.

God Bless Our Troops, and God Bless America.

The "War Department"

[jimijon]

At least they were honest back then. Now it is called the "Defense Department"?! HA!

the names of the chief alternative designs

[Anonymous Coward]

..."Rectangle", "Quadrilateral", and "Square", tested poorly in focus groups.

Re:Pentagon or Pentagram?

[bobo mahoney]

wow an anti-conspiracy theory guy on Slashdot? I didn't think you guys existed.

What!?

[lawpoop]

You mean all those conspiracy web sites that claim that the shape of the pentagon and capitol hill are giant satanic drawings are bullshit!?

Re:Pentagon or Pentagram?

[Profane MuthaFucka]

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.

the onion had it right

[the_tsi]

Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Sides [theonion.com].

Re:Pentagon or Pentagram?

[It doesn't come easy]

As they say, the Devil is in the details...

Re:Pentagon or Pentagram?

[roman_mir]

wow an anti-conspiracy theory guy on Slashdot? I didn't think you guys existed. - it is, of-course, a conspiracy.

Sounds vaguely familiar

[$RANDOMLUSER]

In the rush to complete the project, there was simply no time to change the design."

I know I've heard something like this before. Where could it have been? Where could it have been?
Ah, never mind, I'm sure they'll get it right in rev 2.

Re:the names of the chief alternative designs

[gardyloo]

And the public thought that "Moebius Strip", though it sounded fun at first, hinted too much at something German.

Re:Pentagon or Pentagram?

[FuzzyDaddy]

I blame the freemasons.

I totally agree. Like all open source ventures, the quality just isn't there. The proprietary masons would have done it properly.

Re:the names of the chief alternative designs

[Midnight Thunder]

And the public thought that "Moebius Strip", though it sounded fun at first, hinted too much at something German.

Nah, it was just they thought the discussion would go on for ever ;)

This is not true.

[The Living Fractal]

The real reason was that certain other countries had a building with FOUR sides and the people who built the pentagon were thinking, fuck it all, we're going to FIVE BLADES..errr SIDES!!!

TLF

Screw the pentagon

[antiaktiv]

Screw the pentagon, i want to know how this [google.com] military building got its shape.

Re:the names of the chief alternative designs

[gardyloo]

Discussion? More like a monologue ;)

Re:Principia Discordia reference

[ehrichweiss]

You must have missed the point of the Law of Fives and Discordianism in general. I'd respond with more but I'm off to eat 2+3 hotdogs.

Hail Eris!!
All Hail Discordia!!!

Re:Permanent home?

[roman_mir]

The problem with Iraq is that it is full of Iraqis.

Re:One page version rather than five pages ...

[Mozk]

Oh my god.

Animated gifs, a dynamic JavaScript title bar, icons that follow the mouse, a confusing layout, AND embedded background music?

BEST. WEBSITE. EVAR.

I bet it would get 6 stars from Bob's Top 50 List of Super-Cool Intartube Webpages.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:WWII looming?

[multipartmixed]

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.