A Brief History
On January 15, 1943, the largest “office” building in the world was dedicated in Arlington County, Virginia, the Pentagon, a building that would become the symbol of the American military.
Digging Deeper
With five floors above ground and another two underground, the Pentagon boasts over 6.6 million square feet of floorspace. Not until 2023 would the Pentagon’s massive floorspace be eclipsed. Its 17.5 miles of corridors get busy foot traffic 24/7, with a workforce of 23,000 military and civilian defense workers plus another 3,000 non-defense workers. The center area is a five-acre courtyard!
Built at great effort and expense to meet the demands of World War II, we call this building a “Monument to Man’s Folly” because of the folly of war, mankind wasting money, toil, and resources on the business of killing each other instead of the benefit of all.
Question for students (and subscribers): What is the worst monument to the folly of Man? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Dale, Liam. America in World War II: From Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima – The United States in WW2. The History Journals, 2019.
Vogel, Steve. The Pentagon: A History. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008.
The featured image in this article, a view of the Pentagon from the northwest during the building’s construction in July 1942, is a work of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
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