The Pentagon
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- The Pentagon
- Creator
- Ripley, Josephine
- Identifier
- Curious facts about
- Language
- English
- Source
- Panorama Volume XIII (No.7) July 1961
- Year
- 1961
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT THE PENTAGON Josephine Ripley One of Washington’s most unusual government build ings is seldom visited by tour ists. Yet there is probably no building in the capital about which there is more curiosi ty. “Where is the Pentagon?” visitors ask. They stare incredulously and go their way, elsewhere. Perhaps that is because its dimensions are so formidable. Everyone has heard the sto ry of the messenger boy who disappeared within the build ing shortly after its comple tion, and emerged several years later a general. The Pentagon has no street address—to avoid having five perhaps. It is located in the District of Columbia, yet it is across the Potomac in Vir ginia. Well, anyway, in a fin ger of land known as the Dis trict of Columbia which ex tends into Virginia. It has parking lots for some 8,400 cars, but many prefer taking a bus into the heart of the building to hoofing it from one of the parking areas. The Pentagon is a maze of corridors within, and clover leaf highways without. Miss a turn and you may find your self back across the river in the District again. I speak from experience, having ta ken the turn to “north park ing” instead of “south park ing.” This carried me beyond the Pentagon and eventually to the Lincoln Memorial Bridge, after which I started all over again. The five-floor building has 17x/2 miles of corridors. (Which may explain why tourists are satisfied just to look.) It is so designed, archi tects say, that the maximum walking distance between any two points is only 1,800 feet—only a six-minute walk. That is, if you know the way. According to Lt. Col. C. V. Glines (who offers up some startling statistics on the Pen tagon in the U.S. Lady ma JULY 1961 29 gazine) 30,000 daytime emplo yees, military and civilian, work there. It is aji office building for the military, but it contains also: two banks, a post office, telegraph office, airline and railroad ticket offices, a drug store, ladies’ and men’s ap parel stores, bookstore, bake ry, florist, barber shop, laun dry and dry cleaner, an opto metrist, a candy shop, jewel ry store, shoe repair shop, and a uniform store. Buses and taxis tunnel un der the building. Two com mercial bus companies ope rate some 900 trips in and out of the terminal daily. People arrive at the Pen tagon from all directions these days—by land, sea, and air. Helicopters drop passen gers almost any time of day. Several hundred people com mute by boat. The “Air Force navy” operates a regular schedule from Bolling Air Force base across the Poto mac to the Pentagon boat dock. The pudgy, five-sided buil ding has many nicknames, such as the “Puzzle Palace,” “The House of Confusion,” “The Cement Sanitarium,” “The Big Hanger.” It has three times the floor space of the Empire State Building, covers 34 acres of ground, and is surrounded by 200 acres of lawns, flower beds, and terraces. It has two restaurants, six cafeterias, nine beverage bars, and, in the summer, an out side snack shop in the court yard. Colonel Glines estimates that all employees eat at least one meal in the Pentagon. Some 60,000 pounds of food is served daily—all of which makes the world’s largest office building also the world’s largest food service organiza tion. Patrons of the restaurants are said to consume 3,800 quarts of milk a day, 7,000 soft drinks, 35,000 cups of cof fee, and eat 5,000 sandwiches. Church services are held daily, Protestant, Roman Ca tholic, and Jewish. The Pentagon has been so constructed with innumerable stairways and ramps that the entire building could be emp tied in one hour if necessa ryOften quoted statistics in clude the fact that: 10 tons of waste paper are collected each day and sold for an an nual income of nearly $100,000 for the government; 85,000 light fixtures of all types burn out about 900 bulbs a day; 40,000 telephones handle the 275,000 calls made each working day, with more than (Continued on page 88) 30 Panorama small sub-groupings within the barrio headed by neigh borhood or “situational” lea ders as basic units for the in troduction and acceptance of change. 8. The motives to which one can appeal for acceptance of desired changes are not yet ap parent. Certainly • the motive for increased profits may not be very operative. Considera tions of prestige and status are important. Community pride is at a low level while family pride is high. Keeping up with the Cruzes is a corn * monly expressed motive. How ever, it is not immediately ap parent how this incentive could be utilized. 9. The role of music is not clear. Tagalog songs are used at fiestas, serenades and wed dings. Members of the young er generation who want to appear “modern” sing popular songs in English. There are considerations which lead one to support the utilization of both kinds of music. It sim ply is not clear which kind, if either, would facilitate so cial change. 10. The balagtasan or de bate in verse is very popular. The barrio people have great respect for well polished rhe toric. A rehearsal of reasons for acceptance of certain in novation such as wells or fruit trees would possibly raise considerable discussion. But whether action would follow remains to be discovered. Dis course has many functions other than purveying facts. Actually, most facts are now conveyed in an informal per son-to-person manner. The villagers have simply not yet learned to look beyond the barrio lieutenant and gossip (tAismis) for information. CURIOUS FACTS ... (Continued from page 30) 160,000 miles of cable strung through the building. The Pentagon, even if off the beaten tourist track, is well worth a visit. The con course, with its shops, is a veritable main street. The courtyard at this time of year is festooned with azaleas, wild crab apple blooms, and dogwood. There is an art collection in the mail corridor. Just ask for a map at one of the in formation desks and find your own way around, or if you are traveling in a group, ask for an especially conducted tour. ¥ ¥ ¥ 88 Panorama
- pages
- 29+