History UsefulNotes / ThePentagon

Since the military's top brass does most of its planning there, and since the building is so easy to spot from the air, it was one of the targets of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. The structure survived in part because it had recently been retrofitted with kevlar.[[note]] The Pentagon was actually in the middle of remodelling when the plane hit it. The side that was hit had already been partly closed because of this, which explains the comparatively low body count. The ''other'', more important, reason the Pentagon survived is because it's MASSIVE – a fully-fuelled plane used as a missile barely made a dent in the thing.[[/note]] Well before that, however, the exact center of the building was a potential target of Soviet missiles; in fact, [[HarsherInHinsight pre-9/11]], the cafe kiosk at the center of the structure was informally referred to as the "Ground Zero Cafe". Even before the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, when the Pentagon was built in [[TheForties the early 1940s]],[[note]] (amusingly, construction began on September 11, 1941 – 60 years to the day before the attacks)[[/note]] it was designed to be able to withstand a naval bombardment by battleships, being fairly close to the sea. Also, in terms of floor space, it is the largest office building in the world, and with good reason when you consider how massive the United States military is.

[[folder: ComicBooks]]

[[folder: Film]]

[[folder: Live-Action Television]]

[[ParanoiaFuel Your identity has been noted]]. [[UsefulNotes/{{NSA}} Greetings from Fort Meade]].

* The Pentagon is also a World Wonder (for [[WeAllLiveInAmerica Western Civilizations]]) in ''VideoGame/EmpireEarthII''. It allows houses (normally built to raise your population cap) to shoot at enemies.

Since the military's top brass does most of its planning there, and since the building is so easy to spot from the air, it was one of the targets of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. The structure survived in part because it had recently been retrofitted with kevlar.[[note]] The Pentagon was actually in the middle of remodelling when the plane hit it. The side that was hit had already been partly closed because of this, which explains the comparatively low body count. The ''other'', more important, reason the Pentagon survived is because it's MASSIVE – a fully-fuelled plane used as a missile barely made a dent in the thing.[[/note]] Well before that, however, the exact center of the building was a potential target of Soviet missiles; in fact, [[FunnyAneurysmMoment pre-9/11]], the cafe kiosk at the center of the structure was informally referred to as the "Ground Zero Cafe". Even before the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, when the Pentagon was built in [[TheForties the early 1940s]],[[note]] (amusingly, construction began on September 11, 1941 – 60 years to the day before the attacks)[[/note]] it was designed to be able to withstand a naval bombardment by battleships, being fairly close to the sea. Also, in terms of floor space, it is the largest office building in the world, and with good reason when you consider how massive the United States military is.

* ''Film/NoWayOut'': Most of the film takes place in the Pentagon building.

Architecturally, it's a distinctive, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pentagonal]] [[ShapedLikeItself building]], with 5's as a recurring theme: 5 sides, 5 floors, 5 concentric rings; also, whether by intent or by chance, the courtyard in the middle is just over 5 acres in area. It has ''[[BigLabyrinthineBuilding 17.5 miles (28.2 km) of corridors]]'', and those five 108° angle corners result in a ''very'' [[AlienGeometries confusing layout]]. The interior is notoriously homogeneous; if you don't read the signs, it's easy to get lost there, since every area looks like every other area. Not to mention that it's easy to forget which ''floor'' you're on, as some of those corridors are actually ''ramps''. [[Series/GetSmart Agent Maxwell Smart]] got lost inside it for several ''days.'' That said, once you get familiar with the building, it takes seven minutes or less to get from any place inside the building to any other.

* The Pentagon is also a World Wonder (for Western Civilizations) in Empire Earth II. It allows houses (normally built to raise your population cap) to shoot at enemies.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' the headquarters of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel is in the ruins of the Pentagon, which they have rechristened "The Citadel".

* The ComicBook/XMen and ComicBook/MsMarvel once fought Rogue in the corridors of the Pentagon. In the comic, Ms. Marvel falsely claims (maybe it was a misconception at the time?) that The Pentagon had been originally designed as a hospital to treat the projected massive number of war casualties from WorldWarTwo. (Acutally, The Pentagon was always intended to house the War Department and later the Department of Defense).

* The Pentagon is the subject of a lengthy conspiracy-themed arc in ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'', with the ArcWords "Why is the Pentagon the shape that it is?". You never get a clear answer, but you do learn what lurks underneath it; [[spoiler:a being that haunts the telephone lines, among many other horrifying things]].

* For some reason, in the world of ''VideoGame/killer7'' the US has a Pentagram instead.

* The pentagon is the subject of a lengthy conspiracy-themed arc in ''ComicBook/DoomPatrol'', with the ArcWords "Why is the Pentagon the shape that it is?". You never get a clear answer, but you do learn what lurks underneath it; [[spoiler:a being that haunts the telephone lines, among many other horrifying things]].

* Being [[ArcNumber five-sided]], it was inevitable that Pentagon cropped up in ''Literature/TheIlluminatusTrilogy'': in the books, [[spoiler:[[CthulhuMythos Yog-Sothoth]] has been trapped within the pentagon formed by its walls (he was also trapped in a similar construct back on Atlantis), but the walls are blown up later in the trilogy and he escapes]].

The distinctive shape and design of the Pentagon and its relationship to other stock mystical symbols as pentagrams lead some to imagine that the building [[SealedEvilInACan is holding something inside]] besides a garden. For instance, early Internet culture half-jokingly spoke of the Shub-Internet, cause of all network slowdown, lurking beneath the Pentagon. In fact, the reason the Pentagon is a pentagon is rather more mundane: the original site of the Pentagon (Arlington Farm) was defined by local roads as an irregular pentagon, and the building was designed for maximum use of space; however, it was soon realized that it would block the view of DC from Arlington Cemetery, so they chose another site further downriver instead. The new site didn't have the same constraints, but there wasn't enough time or resources to conduct a major redesign, so they elected to just change it to a equilateral pentagon. It helped that FDR liked the design.

Since the military's top brass does most of its planning there, and since the building is so easy to spot from the air, it was one of the targets of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. The structure survived in part because it had recently been retrofitted with kevlar.[[note]] The Pentagon was actually in the middle of remodelling when the plane hit it. The side that was hit had already been partly closed because of this, which explains the comparatively low body count. The ''other'', more important, reason the Pentagon survived is because it's MASSIVE – a fully-fuelled plane used as a missile barely made a dent in the thing.[[/note]] Well before that, however, the exact center of the building was a potential target of Soviet missiles; in fact, [[FunnyAneurysmMoment until the past decade]], the cafe kiosk at the center of the structure was informally referred to as the "Ground Zero Cafe". Even before the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, when the Pentagon was built in [[TheForties the early 1940s]],[[note]] (amusingly, construction began on September 11, 1941 – 60 years to the day before the attacks)[[/note]] it was designed to be able to withstand a naval bombardment by battleships, being fairly close to the sea. Also, in terms of floor space, it is the largest office building in the world, and with good reason when you consider how massive the United States military is.

Architecturally, it's a distinctive, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pentagonal]] building, with 5's as a recurring theme: 5 sides, 5 floors, 5 concentric rings; also, whether by intent or by chance, the courtyard in the middle is just over 5 acres in area. It has ''[[BigLabyrinthineBuilding 17.5 miles (28.2 km) of corridors]]'', and those five 108° angle corners result in a ''very'' [[AlienGeometries confusing layout]]. The interior is notoriously homogeneous; if you don't read the signs, it's easy to get lost there, since every area looks like every other area. Not to mention that it's easy to forget which ''floor'' you're on, as some of those corridors are actually ''ramps''. [[Series/GetSmart Agent Maxwell Smart]] got lost inside it for several ''days.'' That said, once you get familiar with the building, it takes seven minutes or less to get from any place inside the building to any other.

* The ComicBook/{{X-Men}} and MsMarvel once fought Rogue in the corridors of the Pentagon. In the comic, MsMarvel falsely claims (maybe it was a misconception at the time?) that The Pentagon had been originally designed as a hospital to treat the projected massive number of war casualties from WorldWarTwo. (Acutally, The Pentagon was always intended to house the War Department and later the Department of Defense).