Masonry Magazine August 2002 Page. 38
Pentagon
SERIES
RISING
FROM A
SWAMP
BY TOM INGLESBY
The History
THE SUMMER OF '41. THE UNITED STATES IS AT peace, even as war is being fought in Europe and Asia. In this critical time, the civilian and military authorities of the War Department were scattered around Washington D.C. and nearby areas of Virginia and Maryland. Approximately 24,000 War Department personnel were working in more than 20 largely unconnected, buildings.
President Roosevelt wanted authority from Congress to erect temporary buildings for the War Department so he called on Brig. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, Chief of the Construction Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General to develop the proposal. Funding for additional temporary and permanent buildings to house the 30,000 people to be employed at War by early 1942 was needed. Somervell suggested, instead, a single building to shelter as many as 40,000 federal workers. Roosevelt agreed and Somervell quietly contacted the chair of the appropriate House committee to pave the way for this reorganization.
On July 17, a Thursday, Somervell addressed the House Subcommittee on Appropriations and was told by its chairman, Virginia Rep. Clifton A. Woodrum the man Somervell had already talked with to develop the plans. Woodrum, knowing the value of federal projects, picked an area near Arlington National Cemetery-in Virginia, of course for the building.
Somervell then ordered architect G. Edwin Bergstrom to create the drawings and specifications. The deadline: July 21, the following Monday. On Tuesday, July 22, Somervell presented the plans to Woodrum's committee. The concept was approved by the House on July 28 and the Senate on August 14. Roosevelt signed the bill on August 25 with one major condition-he wanted to change the site picked by Woodrum.
This rapid movement was to presage the whole project. Speed was definitely needed throughout the effort.
Moving mountains... of dirt
ON AUGUST 26, 1941, one day after the signing, Roosevelt issued the order to move the location nearly a mile south of the original site to an area where more room for expansion and transportation was available. Unfortunately, that area, where the building now stands, was within the flood plain of the Potomac River. It was, as photos show, a swamp.
Bergstrom had recommended a building in the shape of "a square with a corner cut off" to fit the existing roads at the original site. This unique five-sided building was changed slightly If the country was looking at war clouds forming in the summer of 1941, the War Department was looking at them from windows in 17 different Washington buildings. Something had to be done-It was called the Pentagon.