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The building is pentagon-shaped in plan and houses approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. It has five floors and each floor has five ring corridors.

Built during the early years of World War II, with construction supervised by the future Manhattan Project supervisor Leslie Groves, it is still thought of as one of the most efficient office buildings in the world. Despite 17.5 miles (28 km) of corridors it takes a maximum of seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building.

It was built from 680,000 tons of sand and gravel dredged from the nearby Potomac River that were processed into 435,000 cubic yards (330,000 m³) of concrete and molded into the pentagon shape. Very little steel was used in its design due to the needs of the war effort.

The central plaza in the Pentagon is the largest "no-salute, no-cover" area (where hats need not be worn and salutes are not required) in the world. The open space in the center is informally known as ground zero, a nickname originating during the Cold War when it was thought of as the most likely target of a nuclear missile.

Security Camera image of the moment that American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon Sixty years to the day after groundbreaking on the Pentagon, the September 11, 2001 attacksThe attacks of September 11, 2001 were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. Nineteen members of the al-Qaida militant Islamist group hijacked four aircraft. They crashed two into the two towers of the occurred. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the building, causing part of it to collapse and killing 125 people in addition to the 64 aboard the plane. For pictures and graphics showing the damage in the impact see this briefing. The first of the workers whose offices were destroyed or damaged in the attack began moving back in on August 15August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. Events 778 The Battle of Roncevaux Pass, in which Roland is killed 1517 First European connection with China seven Portuguese armed vessels le, 20022002 is a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). 2002 was the first palindromic year since 1991 and the last until 2112. 2002 was also designated: International Year of Ecotourism and Mountains National Science Year in the United Kingdom. [1]

Just south of the Pentagon are Pentagon City and Crystal CityHighway 1) can be seen running from north to south left of the image center. The main terminal of National Airport is in the bottom right corner of the image; a few lanes of I-395 are visible in the top left corner, immediately beyond which is the Pentago, extensive shopping districts in Arlington. Arlington National CemeteryArlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, is an American military cemetery established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's home. It is situated directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D. next to the present is to the north. A Washington MetroThe Washington Metro is the public transportation system of Washington DC and adjoining regions of Maryland and Virginia. It is owned and operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), a multijurisdictional agency funded by the Di station is also located at the Pentagon, on the BlueThe Blue Line of the Washington Metro consists of 25 subway stations from Franconia-Springfield to Addison Road-Seat Pleasant. It has stations in Fairfax County, Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County, Mar and YellowThe Yellow Line of the Washington Metro consists of twelve subway stations from Gallery Pl-Chinatown to Huntington. It starts in the District of Columbia, crosses the Potomac River into Arlington, Virginia, goes through Alexandria and ends in Fairfax Coun Lines.