Why the Pentagon is a pentagon
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- Опубліковано 15 січ 2022
- It's pentagon time!
Sources at bottom.
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Honestly, this free DOD book had everything I needed: history.defense.gov/Portals/7...
That said, here's a nice pop history I used (affiliate link):
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Here's the breathless (and awesome) coverage in Popular Mechanics:
books.google.com/books?id=WNY...
Here's a ton of construction pics at Library of Congress: blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/202...
They also didn't include elevators because they wanted to conserve steel and iron for ongoing war efforts. This is also why the original structure was made of reinforced concrete. I'm a Pentagon Tour Guide, I love seeing these videos!
Pinning this comment because I should have included this! Please share if you have any other favorite anecdotes!
Cool
I'm just imagining move in day and they have to drag all the office equipment up several flights of stairs for hundreds of offices
Hi Madelyn.
I'm sorry, but I don't get it.
"Made of reinforced concrete".
As opposed to what ? (How would they make a building with more iron/steel) ??
Cheers,
-K from 🇮🇸 🙂
@@karlbark Before the introduction of reinforced concrete (concrete+rebar), large building frames were made of steel beams - think the "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photo. Compared to steel frame construction, reinforced concrete uses WAY less steel!
An extremely brief list of "materials we've used to build big buildings" goes, in chronological order, stone, brick, steel, reinforced concrete.
Originally, it was planned as an octagon, but they had to cut corners.
Screw you im out.
cease
@@tekgewet Egypt is now building the octagon
If they cut corners wouldn't there be more corners
@@i_am_funny cornercuttingparadox
My dad loves to tell a story about his grandfather being one of the plaster contractors to build the pentagon. He watched someone get fired for filling in doorways and plastering over them so they wouldn’t have to plaster that room, saving time or money I guess. They thought nobody would notice that entire rooms were missing from the floor plan. My great grandfather had to figure out where the rooms were, and complete the job the other contractor botched.
Hah great story!
imagine being an officer assigned to the new building, standing in a hallway staring at a blank wall, wondering where his office is.
G'day Uncle, I'm certain the descendants of those cowboy plasterers worked on my home just recently! Cheers, great story! BH
Secret rooms at the Pentagon confirmed.
@@penitent2401 that's honestly hilarious
I grew up about 2 miles from the Pentagon. And I worked in it as a contractor for about 3 months, installing computer gear, before PC's existed.
My mom was a secretary in the Pentagon when it only had 3 sides. No joke. They were so desperate for office space, they started working in the building before it was complete.
When the Pentagon first opened, busses from DC were not allowed to cross into Virginia, so workers were dropped on the DC side of the Potomac river, and had to walk across the river and to the Pentagon, with zero regard for the weather. President Roosevelt issued an order allowing the busses into Virginia for the duration of the war, in the name of efficiency, and in reducing the number of sick days workers took.
The story goes that the military figured they would need lots of space for records after the war, so the Pentagon was designed as a records retention building/library, meaning it is stronger than a regular office building (paper records weigh a lot more than people). Helped it survive 9/11 attack.
Lots of people ride 3-wheel bikes in the Pentagon. Plumbers, electricians, telephone repair, etc.Really very efficient.
The Pentagon has (at least) 5 ZIP codes. Each branch of the service has one, as well as one for the DOD. Not sure about Space Force.
There are about 17 restaurant/cafeteria's in the Pentagon. At least one is always open.
There is a small shopping center in the Pentagon. Not only department stores, but uniform stores, other clothing, drug stores, shoes, shoe repair, barbers, hair salons, etc.
9/11 Pentagon trivia. The Pentagon is in Arlington, Virginia (evidence is you pay Arlington sales tax). So Arlington Fire Departments handles fires there.
Well, on 9/11, they ran into a problem. They needed to get a ladder truck into the courtyard, to get firemen on the roof attacking from that side.
But the courtyard, which was originally mostly grass, had been paved over, multiple times, and this made the one road into the courtyard higher than it was designed, and they could not get a ladder truck inside! So, in the end, they did two things. Arlington FD took a metal cutting chain saw and removed the driving position on the read of the ladder truck, just cut it off! Second, the Arlington FD called around to small area fire departments, and in one found a nearly 50 year old ladder truck, the reserve ladder truck in a rural Maryland area, and had them send that down, because it was short enough to get inside the courtyard, but it's ladder was just long enough to get fire fighter onto the roof.
Lastly, the location was the original location for Hoover field, the first airport in the DC area. It was too small for a real airport anymore, so they built the larger National Airport just about a mile down the river, on a land fill area in the river
Phew!.
If it has three wheels, it isn’t a bike.
@@somecallmetim4490 yes, right. It's a rickshaw then.
Cool trivia
Now _that_ is very informative! Thank you!
you missed the fact that it has a DMV inside
I got to see my uncles retirement ceremony from the Pentagon in the central courtyard. They joked that the concession stand in the center was the precise location of a Soviet ICBM target.
I ran into that hot dog stand in almost every article I read!
Of course it was the target of a ICBM, why wouldn't it be? The real question is what altitude would it have been targeted to? If the Soviets thought that there were significant underground facilities, they may have attempted a ground shot instead of an air blast.
Loooool technically, from everything I've heard it's not a joke!!! It genuinely actually was and probably still is!!! Also heard that it's almost tradition to rush past it.
@@zeroone8800 yes
Never liked the food served in the middle. If it ever was a secret missile silo, it would be pretty funny to see it burst out while sending hot dogs all over the place.
It's worth noting that the officer in charge of the construction of the Pentagon, who made a building out of all that chaos, was Colonel Leslie Groves, who was promoted to General when he took charge of his next project, codenamed "Manhattan".
That IS worth noting!
When Col. Groves assigned to manage the Manhattan Project, he said "If I have to be in charge of a bunch of eggheads, I need to be a general!" So the Army brass said OK here is your star.
Yep the man was a SOB but he get stuff done. We couldn’t have won the war without him.
Groves hit a problem with the Manhattan Project: in the army, if people don’t get things done, you yell at them, and they hop to it. That didn’t work with scientists: yelling at them just made them go into a sulk.
So he had to hire another scientist to act as his liaison, somebody who could talk to the scientists and persuade them to do things where yelling wouldn’t work: J Robert Oppenheimer.
Apparently he got the job done within time & budget, a rarity with any government job in any country.
Good video - some comments to amplify:
- Those old army buildings on the Mall were a very common Federal style - long wide front with wings coming out perpendicular, sort of like a comb. Those wings typically had a center hall and 20-30 foot bays either side. Lots of light and ventilation, very important pre-AC. The old Navy Annex up the hill (now razed) was like that.
- That Federal style runs into limits - a LONG way from the farthest wings. One early design to fit the shape basically had 5 of those buildings with wings going in. Instead, they made the rings - It’s really like 5 concentric pentagons, with windows and space in between. Some parts on the ground floor go all the way across, but above the 3rd floor, you walk indoor sky bridges between wings.
- I remember 1 escalator going up when I was there in 92, in the A ring. The renovation put escalators at each of the A-ring apexes, Nice and airy. There are also elevators on each of the 10 main corridors at around the D Ring.
- Tricycle carts for delivery or building maintenance still used, as are electric carts. Far fewer than there used to be, because inter office mail has been replaced by email. Much less movement of physical paper from office to office. There are ramps so they can move from floor to floor.
- In the 40s and 50s, city busses came into center court and dropped passengers. There is a Metro station and bus terminal at the Pentagon. You used to be able to go from Pentagon to Metro in the building, there’s an air gap now - exit the building, walk under a covered walkway, escalator down to Metro.
- The building had a ground floor and four floors above that. Almost immediately, a 5th floor was added - narrower halls, shorter ceilings. The renovation made the 5th floor a regular floor with the same dimensions as the others.
- The BestBuy is now an AAFES uniform store. Other retailers include a jewelry store, flower shop, gift shop, Bank of America and Navy Federal Credit Union branch, barber shop, beauty salon, dentist, Virginia DMV service desk, optical shop, chocolate shop. Some spaces are for temporary concessionaires - trunk sale clothing, holiday/seasonal.
- There are also convenience stores - Blind Operated Businesses. And a full CVS.
- The center court grill, aka Ground Zero, was under renovation last time I was there. They built a really nice indoor food court with lots of the usual fast food places. There’s also a pay by weight food bar (salad bar, pasta bar, etc.) And some other places to eat throughout.
- The gym, once called the Pentagon Officers Athletic Club, now the Pentagon Athletic Club, is really nice. One boss advised newcomers to get to the gym - turns one long shitty day into two short shitty days! Interesting to see the generational shift - racquetball and squash courts being converted to CrossFit boxes.
- The renovations were a to the cement gutting, one wedge at a time. It had been built before computers and their increased electric, AC, and network cable needs. They modernized all of that. Also added Kevlar in exterior walls and the glass was thick laminated, like an inch thick. Laminated for blast protection, thick to thwart using a laser mic to listen in on conversations from a distance. The plane hit one of the renovated wedges, which prevented a lot of injuries from flying glass and shrapnel.
- Friends who worked in the building on B-ring 4th deck could see the exit point of the plane and the engine that came to rest in the space between B and C rings. The Navy command center was one of the hardest hit.
Stationed there 3x, 92-93, 09-12, 16-19. Saw the changes from the big modernization. Unlike many, I loved it - always felt like an exciting place to be, and kind of homey at the same time.
Ton of interesting stuff - thanks for sharing!
Are the ramps still there tho? 👍🏿💯
I remember being in 4th grade when 9/11 happened and our teacher explained what the Pentagon was and I couldn't help but think, "well that's random." Our teacher was correct that I would remember that day for the rest of my life but it was because I learned we had a weird building that was in the shape as a Pentagon ahahaha, I know it's not a day to laugh about but that's my memory of 9/11.
5th grade for me. remember it like it was last week. good times..well, not really. but u get it
Damn, neither of you knew we had a pentagon until you were like ten. Sad, probably because it was a democrat in office.
@@jonathanweir6084 My brother in Christ, not everything has to be about politics.
I think there are many people who would be sad to think that people couldn't laugh in the future. I myself have my own story for that day.
Let me guess your current age between 31 &33
It is apparently one of the hardest buildings to navigate due to every corridor looking the same as the one you just left. Having 5 floors above and 2 below ground with 5 rings of corridors A-E resulting in around 17 miles of corridor
thats not a bad thing, intruders will get confused
@@nitroxylictv sure but i bet that people working there get confused too.
There were many times I got lost. It's a lot to cover and even worse when you are in a hurry.
That actually makes it easy to navigate -- the room numbers are consistent. What makes it hard to navigate are the exceptions. I worked there for 2 years, and even in the last days, I would encounter areas that were blocked off for one reason or another, and then I'd have to work around to get where I needed to go.
I once worked in a building that was I think 8 hexagon shapes with small squares between each hexagon. So 3 squares I remember. Each square was a meeting area, cafeteria, washroom. In the middle of each hexagon was a common meeting/ board room. Everyone had offices on either side of the corridors that went around each hexagon. The more important on the outside as the angles were less acute and offices bigger. Anyway, it always amused me how many new people got lost. They would walk from their office to café, or washroom and get lost on the way back. With no natural light it was so easy. Or you would see someone wander outside, look around to get their bearing and head back in. I would imagine the pentagon being like this, but way worse
The number of toilets is the happy result of a bad government policy: segregation. (President Woodrow Wilson ordered the federal government to be segregated ). In addition to the usual male and female facilities, and officer and enlisted facilities, there were colored and white facilities. When segregation thankfully went away, there were more toilets available for all. It's actually one of the nice things about working in that building.
The Pentagon itself, notably, never was segregated; it was designed in accordance with Virginia's segregation laws, but when FDR visted the place while it was being constructed he ordered the bathrooms to be desegregated. When Virginia's governor complained, FDR replied that it was a Federal building, so it was under the ultimate authority of the President.
yet another reason why Woodrow Wilson was terrible
Is thst why one bathroom (the women's one) is always bigger and nicer?
@@KennyHazy97 That is kind of a cool piece of history and more over it shows how progressive Franklin D Roosevelt was for his time in office
@@bescotdude9121 something something redlining
Fun fact: if was the shape of an octagon, it would be called The Octagon.
Thank you for keeping it clean and not adding in offensive humor. My 12 year old son and I just watched your video so we could learn more about the Pentagon.
Im an architect who never heard this story...im frankly shocked given the militarys need for symbolism and tradition that it WASNT designed to invoke a star fort.
Exactly what i thought. 😂 i thought the pentagonal shape was a simplified "modern" Version of the classic star fort.
😅 given its military/navy/airforce use it would make sense and actually be a nice symbol.
@@tomasvrabec1845 if there's one thing the government loves more than tradition and symbolism, it's being too cheap and lazy to change the design
@@JKSSubstandard Except they enjoy spending excess money on a useless redesign even more. 😀
Yeah I saw the video and I just guessed it had something to do with a star fort
Honestly, knowing militaries. this explanation is even more appropriate. They designed an overly complicated square peg for a square whole they were told to fill, were given a round hole to fill instead, put the square peg partway into the round hole, looked at it for a bit, considered the time crunch, considered the material the round hole was drilled into, shrugged and hammered it through with the butt of a rifle with a "if it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid" and moved on to deal with the more important task.
Militaries that can't improvise with what they have to keep the tempo in their favor and either keep doing the same thing when they know it's not working or going all the way back to the drawing board every time something changes to start over from blank canvas do exactly 1 thing well.
Loose.
Both sticking with the temporary situation and going back to the drawing board to get the perfect building would have been mistakes.
"You know what? It's iconic, the blueprints are already drawn up, it's fit for purposes, it's better than what we have, and any differences would have less value than the delay. Build it and move on; we've got Nazis to shoot." Was 100% the right call.
It's also how we did our tank designs then. "What's the best thing we can get in the field in quantity now? The M3? Fine, it's a mess but it'll do. Mass produce it and ship it. You have until that can't cut it to design a better tank, retool the factories and start churning out the tank you want to field in volume. M4? Great...oh, just ok for the changing circumstances? Minor tweaks to adjust for the situation, but nothing to significantly slow production."
The side that was _constantly_ retooling their factories to try and have the absolute best possible version of their medium tanks being produced at any given moment? Well, low production volume, horrific maintenance procedures and reliability problems, and their head of state shot himself (and that was arguably the most competent faction from that side).
Being able to accurately assess a situation and correctly prioritize when to act and when to not act are vital....and a certain ideology just so consistently fails at it.
I read an article that was all about absurd military decisions. One such decision was the USSR's choice to select a hotdog stand as a primary target for it's nuclear war plans.
The thing the article did not mention was the location of this particular hotdog stand. It stood in the center of the courtyard of the Pentagon.
So while it might seem absurd to target a hotdog, it makes a lot more sense to target the center of the courtyard of the headquarters of the US Military. It just so happens that a hotdog stand is in that location. Because even Generals and Admirals need to eat lunch.
There is a hotdog stand in the middle of the Red Alert 2 Pentagon. I finally understand why.
@@SoylentGamer you didn't just think there could be a hot dog stand there?
@@ffwast Nah, I thought it was just like a silly joke.
@@SoylentGamer ah now i gotta go look!
What happened is the soviets saw on satellite footage that the location of the stand (they didn't know it was a hotdog stand) was incredibly busy at parts of the day and they just assumed it was some important secret defense thing and so they targeted it
I'm happy to see the huge improvements you've been doing Phil, especially in the last few months. The quality is on another level. It feels like it has a Vox journalistic theme now. Keep up the good work.
You have to be one of the first UA-camrs I’ve seen where I subscribed not after the first few videos I watched, but the first few minutes. Amazing, eloquently presented content.
I remember flying into Reagan National, seeing the pentagon from the air with no notion of the true size of it, thinking "oh it's not so big." Fast forward to staying at the Hilton right across from it, seeing it from the ground for the first time, and all I could say was "shit that's a big ass building."
Also flew into Reagan recently, thought it wasn't that big when I passed by, didn't realize it was the Pentagon either and nearly missed it. Though yeah the building is huge, quite a feat.
@@theabsolutemadlad2240 This video doesn't mention that there are multiple floors below ground as well (at least now there are).
@miguel sanchez hmm
@miguel sanchez boy you were frothing at the mouth to get that out huh. All I said was it's a big ass building.
@@TianarTruegard I worked there from 1985-1988, maintaining and installing communications equipment. I can't speak for it's current design, but when I was there it had only two floors below ground: A Mezzanine level for mechanical equipment (HVAC, etc.), and a basement level that only ran about halfway around the perimeter of the floors above it. My work center was in the basement, so I became very familiar with what was down there. I find it hard to believe that more sub-levels were added afterward. The Pentagon was built on reclaimed marshy soil that is constantly settling. Periodically they had to pump fresh concrete under the basement to fill in voids that formed.
I used to think the shape had something to do with the pentagon-shaped space created in the center of the stars that a five-star officer wears. But, it turns out that the five-star rank was created after the building was designed, so this is not the case.
That Five star rank is also special because it’s a war time rank, which is pretty interesting.
I thought it was just an adaptation of Star Forts classic design (fortresses used to be built in star shapes as it was easy to defend it)
I was always told that it was a pentagon for the 5 branches of the military - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force , Coast Guard - and that each branch got one of the sides.
With the addition of Space Force, I was wondering if they were going to make it a Hexagon.
Same.
Technically the Coast guard is under DHS now, so it's fine
no, space force goes in space
Space Force. Can we get any more full of ourselves?
When they built it, there was no Air Force.
One of my co workers carry’s a pice of metal with him every day. That piece of metal was part of the plane that hit the pentagon. It reminds him that even though he’s having a bad day somebody had a worse day
I have the same reminder, only I use my army ID card. It's always there to tell me that, no matter how bad my day is, I've been through worse.
Wonderful video Phil, now I'm checking out your other stuff and finding myself subscribing! I think what's most refreshing is your ability to say a lot in a short amount of time. I feel one of the big holes a lot of people who make informative videos can get themselves into is making videos that become longer and longer and longer. That's not a bad thing, but I always find it refreshing to find these short and sweet little tidbits. Keep up the great work!
Haha I'm afraid you have found my Achilles heal. Having only a few hours to work on these is really helpful in the brevity department.
Good informative videos are long because there is generally a lot of nuance to be had, and the concepts discussed are broken down to ensure the average person understands them.
That's what happens when you *write script*. :-)
A lot of bullshit in a short time
Even more important than the exact shape was the cultural message sent by civilian leadership: all branches of service were to work together toward the common goals. The shape and deliberate choice to facilitate interaction sent a powerful message.
Inter service rivalry is simply a fact of life and it’s unrealistic to expect frictionless relationships. With that said, just as an example during the Second World War, the Japanese Army and Navy were openly at odds much of the time, to the degree that the rivalry was more effective at stopping them from achieving their goals than allied military action. Likewise, the power struggles between the various German armed force cost them dearly.
Whereas the leadership of other countries may have seen some value in keeping various military factions at odds to ensure balance of power, this had a negative effect on their war fighting ability. In the US, squabbling military leaders had to share the same building, and location dictated that compromise could be forced.
It’s pretty hard to duck a rival when their office is in the same building!
you could argue that one of the biggest advantages the US had over Japan was that it didnt suffer from the same catastrophic toxic rivalries that japan had to deal with as a result of this
@@DOZDDMGator 100% agreed.
And Germany, to a lesser degree. Look at the rivalry between the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, and between the old school/old money/higher class Wehrmacht, and the SS/SD.
Not that the US has ever been immune to some of the same rivalries ("Revolt of the Admirals", anyone?). And ongoing today in that the USAF has from inception had a culture dominated by fighter and bomber pilots who love their pretty planes - they desperately didn't want the Army to have fixed wing airplanes, but at the same time have fought against the CAS role and the A-10 from Day One. The USAF is like a dog with a lump of dirt, they don't want the role but they don't want the Army to have those assets more!
"Add odds" is an understatement. The Navy hated the Army so much they often refuses naval support so the Army actually had its own boats. The Navy wanted to conquer Southeast Asia, the Army wanted to take North China from Manchuria. There were even instances of assassinations between the two branches. They also kinda originated from two rival clans so there was a long history of bad blood.
But what if a missle take out the whole pentagon.
@miguel sanchez your posting this like thats not normie take lol
My grandfather was one of the first residents of the pentagon and went on to work for the redstone arsenal and I believe my grandmother worked there as well doing work on the enigma decoder machine.
"Why is the pentagon a pentagon?"
You know I've never once wondered that but now that you've brought it up I actually need to know
I find it interesting how the name of the building is just it's shape. If you see the word "Pentagon" you immediately think of that building. Also, somewhere I remember seeing a video of a kids toy like that where all of the pieces could be turned to fit through one hole.
Yes I saw one like that where it was all about a designer’s nightmare - that you could just solve them all with one hole. Needless to say, I tried that on this toy and failed completely to beat the system.
The square hole!
A most appropriate metaphor for the armed forces working through one building
My house is called the rectangle
ua-cam.com/users/shortsjkz7bnYfuOI?feature=share
"Why is this the headquarters of the department of defense? A preschool level shape?"
Square Buildings: **sweating intensifies**
Quicker internal foot travel may have been originally one of the shape's advantages, but it's no longer the case today. Probably through various renovations over the years, so many of those corridors have been closed off creating effective cul-de-sacs within, it's really a big (and 3-dimensional) maze. Had one tour where I wound up visiting the Pentagon a lot for meetings/conferences/etc. Gave me just enough familiarity to thank my lucky stars I never had to work there as my main daily job. Not enough familiarity, however, to actually navigate through the place on my own to a not-before-visited location. I always wanted to leave a trail of bread-crumbs behind when going someplace new, lol.
I made a mental note of your subscriber count roughly 3 days ago and it was at 57K. Great to see it has grown by over 50% since then. This channel deserves all the love and views!
i guess my trivia to share is that it's probably more a of a "kindergarten shaped building" since i just started teaching kindergarteners names of shapes. spent nearly a half hour basically arguing with five year olds that yes, a square is a rectangle.
You have a point here, as my 3-year-old immediately insisted it was a hexagon. I was able to convince him however.
Propositional logic does seem like a rather heavy subject to spring on five year olds.
@@KennyHazy97 five year olds love the fingers and thumbs arguments though, so maybe it's not so heavy
This will help too!: ua-cam.com/users/shortsjkz7bnYfuOI?feature=share
You must be a joy of a mother. I bet you argue about how a truck is really a car, because it has 4 wheels. And a man is really a woman if he feels like it.
This channel is a hidden gem! Your content is quite interesting, it answers questions I never knew I had.
Looking forward to see what your studio will look like
One thing I just noticed while looking at your aerial photos of the most recent Pentagon, you see the roof on two of the layers on one side looks a different color than the rest of the roofs. This is because those were the sections damaged by the 9/11 attack. So they rebuilt a new roof.
Constantly some of the best content on UA-cam. Love the videos, keep up the great work.
This is the first video I've seen from you, and let me just say, your videos are super interesting. I hope you get more attention in the future. Also, the new background COMPLETELY improves the vibe, it just feels much more personal with the warmer set and it really invites a sense of connection. I wish you the best of luck in future videos!
There are freight elevators. Great building, so much history. I enjoyed 14 years in that building.
I've watched quite a few videos of yours now, fascinating channel, you're extremely underrated I hope you'll blow up !
I wonder how long it took, and how difficult it was, to retrofit modern electrical systems into this WW2-era structure...
Working in planning for IT modernization of municipal buildings in germany i can assure you they are still facing issues stemming from WW2 decisions today.
i didn’t include pictures of the massive phone switching stations in the original. quite a contrast!
Fun Fact
The limestone for the building came from central Indiana. When it was hit by the plane on 9/11 they had to reopen the quarry from where the stone came so the color could be matched.
Tfw large amounts of tax dollars go to color matching a building
@@b-chroniumproductions3177 Don't worry, they go to even less meaningful things too :P
What plane? There was no plane debris. No wings, fuselage, cabin…etc.
@@b-chroniumproductions3177 What is really nice is the repairs had to be made. The quarry is still an open quarry being used. That section of the quarry was again accessed to allow for continuity in appearance on the building.
It is really amazing how many quarries thee are that are still being used. A number of them are closed. But could be accessed again pretty easily.
Central Indiana is an amazing resource for Limestone. It is close to the surface. It has been used over many years to houses and commercial buildings. IU main campus was primarily built with the local stone. The Biltmore House was built with Stone from Bedford, IN.
It is a greatly rich karst topography area.
@@biggthebarber1 how about the two large Rolls Royce engines that made it into the inner ring? Conspiracy theories are fun when you don’t know anything
Just subbed, what an absolutely wonderful explanation and fun had with the studio!
This was a fascinating Video and delightful to watch!
I am shocked that you only have 12.5k subs! The quality of this video immaculate, the storytelling is engaging. +1 sub my friend
2.13.2022 - 107K subs! he grew quick!
Had a tough day and finishing it with watching your latest offering made it all worth it with another insightful, clear, personable and interesting piece. Thanks for putting a smile on my face.
Such a great video! You are my new favorite channel
Love the humor! Subscribed!
I don't know if you'll read this, but this felt like the best written video essay I've seen in months due to the personal touches you added to the script. Great job Phil, you just earned a new subscriber.
I'm so amazed by your ability to come up with such engaging ideas! Great video as always Phil :)
@miguel sanchez my masters?!
So well done. Thank you! Subscribed!
That was an unexpectedly cool video!
I remember a Murderous Maths book joking that it was related to the fact that you can’t tile with it - if they were the Hexagon, then fake hexagons could be tiled right next to it, fooling the agents
paging CGP Grey to add this to his Hexagons are the Bestagons video
What?
@@MrEazyE357 there was? Is? A series of maths books for kids, called Murderous Maths, and one of them was about Geography
In the book series, they have a bunch of evil but inept aliens. In one of the illustrations, they showed what would happen if The Pentagon was actually The Hexagon
- those aliens would work to clone the hexagon, stick them next to each other, and nobody could tell which one was the real building.
I started with this video and went on a massive binge of all of your videos. These video's have so much effort put into them and the prestation of these weird and fun topics is amazing. I looked at your sub count and was actually shocked, you surpass the quality of channels 50x your size. would not be surprised if you passed 100k very soon, keep it up man these videos are great.
Thanks a lot, that's nice of you!
The wall looks perfect!
I love your videos!
This is amazing, it's the creative mind of a man that he takes up a simple question, explains the history attached to it, and leaves his audience with something to think about. 👏 🙌
Fun fact about the pentagon, it is a five sided polygon whose interior angles add up to 540 degrees.
(Number of sides - 2) * 180° = Total interior angle
Finally getting the views you deserve! Keep it up Phil!
Just found you today, loving your vids, quality.
Thank you! This has bothered me for a long time because I was always told the shape was chosen to represent the 5 branches of the armed forces. The problem is that when the building was made there were only 4 branches, the Air Force wouldn’t come along until after WWII but I never had an answer for why it was shaped that way until now. Thank you
Everyone know that a hexagon is the bestagon, but I always thought that it was because generals have stars and thus the most space effective 5 vertex which is half of the star is a pentagon
The bestagon
Short n sweet I loved the video
Just discovered this video and I love how you explain things or tell history. Couldn't of clicked the subscribe button any quick myself :)!
... Couldn't have* clicked ... Does it not occur to you that "couldn't/shouldn't/wouldn't of" makes absolutely no sense?!
As a young man, I was fortunate enough to have toured the Pentagon, both inside and out... as one might expect, the halls are lined with historic artifacts and art of various time periods.
I must have walked one hall, for over an hour, examining just one painting... a soldier on a U-boat, peering through a set of binoculars, and from no matter where you stood, he always appeared to be looking directly at you.
Huh. I didn't know that ubiquitous gaze worked with binoculars!
damn I thought that was Marisa’s mini-Hakkero in the thumbnail
literally why i clicked this video
It'd be odd if the Pentagon was an octagon or some other shape. "Hey, do you know where the Pentagon is?" "Yeah, it's the big circular building two intersections down the way and to your left."
Always wondered why. Thanks!
I like to think that there's a huge missile silo in the middle of the Pentagon
Great content and useful references in the Description section. Crisp catchy editing, but the background techno music sometimes looms over your voice (though of course, the degree of damage would depend on the output device. It's tolerable on TV, but jarring on my laptop). I dig your at-ease (even goofy, but in a likeable way) camera persona. Keep them coming, Phil.
That is a perennial problem for me - thanks for the feedback and watching!
@@PhilEdwardsInc For reasons beyond me, UA-cam has aggressively removed my reply (containing some recommendation). Thrice. You may look for it in your "held for review" comment section. I've also sent it to your FB page.
@@PhilEdwardsInc agree music was a slight distraction, but nice vid . . . just left out so much detail that I found by reading comments here
It’s good to see Gary Oldman keeping busy, educating folks on the Pentagon
I like the idea that the Pentagon was originally meant to be next to Arlington Cemetery, seems strangely appropriate. That it looks a lot like a Star Fort seems appropriate too. It is a magnificent accomplishment and we saw on 9/11 just how well it was built, even in such a short time, just like it was a fort. Looking at pictures of the roof, I see sheds and antennas and other interesting things...the mystic of the military culture, how we love it!
Just saw this! Well done on having a video blow up 🎉 checking out the rest of your channel atm :)
My step dad used to work in the Pentagon, so I had the privilege to tour the building back in the mid to late 00s. At least at that time, all the fixtures like the water fountains, lights, floors, etc. seemed dated, but as soon as you entered the restored section (the part of the building destroyed on 9/11) everything was updated with a completely different style; I think I also remember seeing escalators in this area as well. It's interesting that our most important military building doesn't seem to get regular remodeling and updating especially considering the military's budget.
Yeah that DOD book I cite in the description has a whole long thing about the renovations. It is interesting that some of that stuff can still be so dated.
Really strong video this week, Phil! I really liked the exposed brick look, btw.
I may paint it - if I don’t post in two weeks, it means the fumes got to me.
PHIL DON'T USE THE PAINT FROM 1977!!! I DON'T CARE HOW CHEAP IT WAS
@@kolpeshtheyardstick Don't worry, I make sure to taste everything before I use it.
@@PhilEdwardsInc is there only one brick wall? Could you paint a section a dark colour and leave another section white and patina like this? I think it works for your channel
@@bradbennett1420 Great minds think alike (unless you are horrified by my decisions in my next video, in which case I apologize).
Your channel was a nice little find. Thankyou….subscribed 😁
Wow this is informative ❤️❤️
When I was young, I was told the shape was more defensive because any approaching forces would be in the firing arc for two sides of the building no matter their direction of approach.
Hence the old star forts. But doubtful an office building was designed with that kind of defense in mind.
@@christopherbelanger6612 I have 0 doubts.
Interesting historical fact: Because segregation was state law, the Pentagon was built with twice as many bathrooms as needed for a desegregated building of its size.
There were also segregated water fountains -- blacks had to use the purple water fountains. When I last worked there in 1988, there was still a purple water fountain in the basement, for historical purposes.
very interesting, well done
why does this video have a million views? the algo shines brightly on Phil. congrats!
Too bad it wasn't a hexagon. Because hexagons are the bestagons.
I thank Johnny for showing me your channel. Great work!
Which video of Johnny's was it?
@@HarjaapSingh it was on his community tab
Great Channel 👍
It would be confusing if the pentagon was any other shape.
"Hey, I'm looking for the pentagon but I just can't seem to find it."
"Oh yeah, this happens all the time, it's the big round building over there."
When my dad was a chef in the Air Force, I used to go to work with him some times. We could sneak out of the dining room windows, and walk around in between the corridors. This was with the Air Force "blue Room and, the Sec Def Mess. Pretty neat.
Whoa. That sounds really cool.
Whoa... That's crazy they broke the ground on Sept. 11, 1941, considering what happened 60 years later to the day. Odd coincidence.
TLDR: Building was meant to fit into the preexisting area. Then they moved it to a new area and FDR said keep the shape anyway.
I didn't really learn a lot from this video like I was expecting but I did learn it moved from one spot to another
Wait. So 9/11 2001, the day they crashed an airplane into the pentagon, was the 60th anniversary of the pentagon’s initial construction?
Airplane?
After your DeLorean video over at Vox, you did another cool and informative video about stuff I didn't know before. Thank you =)
Thanks for mentioning and watching - I was just thinking about those Delorean collector guys the other day.
Thanks for brightening up the set! You did look hella dark. Also, I'm only 48 seconds in but feel the need to repeat CGP Grey's assertion: "Hexagons are the bestagons." Not sure if it's going to be relevant, but I love hexagons and wanted to put that out there. Ok. Back to the video. Cheers, Phil!
That was my only comment! Hexagons are the bestagons! Now, I'll watch the video. 😊
Great video!
Im first time viewer and just subbed :)
I'm digging the vibes
This guy is gonna flip out when he learns that most buildings are an even more elementary shape :s
yeah... many are squares, rectangles or circles :P
@@zaeroses1096 I don't think I've ever been in a circular building that was a normal building. I'm not sure I've ever been in a circular building actually.
Fr that was so pointless to say lol
@@glb0768 Never been in a silo?
@@shigywiggles9530 no but that's a damn good example.
That's right, it goes into the square hole
The Pentagon is something I saw quite often growing up as I went my dad into DC and Baltimore and so I often saw his work on construction sites across those two cities. I remember one day in school hearing about the towers falling and then later the Pentagon was attacked. My dad was going to the pentagon that morning to get permission and plans for a construction project he was going to be doing in DC and wouldve been there at the time of the attack if it had not been for horrible traffic causing him to be late. Never have I ever been so happy for traffic as I was that day.
Congrats on the successful video
That building played a role in my existence, in a weird way. My grandparents both worked there during Vietnam. Back when computers needed punch cards to work. It's where they met, too. He operated the computers and she would bring punch cards down to him. My grandmother had friends fighting in that war and she was one of the first people to get casualty reports from the battles out in the jungle. She worried constantly that she would see someone she knew on those reports. Thankfully, I don't think she did from what I can recall.
dang this should definitely be a movie
@@PhilEdwardsInc for the times we're in, it would probably do pretty well!
i am pretty sure that FDR quote is satire. As most US 17th century stone military bases were shaped like a pentagon(like Fort Independence, or Fort Knox Maine ). Presumably to cover all angles reasonably well with cannons. Which is the reason why the shape is now the icon of US defense that it is.
:D Star Forts were common across US and Europe between 17 to 18 hundreds.
Easier to different but why i can't recall.
So i too thought it was just that. What else is there to say? A headquarter of Military, navy and Airforce Not being designed like an iconic defendable fortress?
Whomever designed it, i hope they knew about it because otherwise it would be very sad not to notice the connection as architect.
What a great channel
Really interesting!
No matter what I feel about the military industrial complex... I still have always thought the Pentagon was a pretty neat bit of architecture. I never knew it didn't have elevators.
It has elevators today, but not when they first constructed it.
@miguel sanchez oh, stop.
@miguel sanchez unsure what you are trying to pull me into, I only let the op know there are elevators. If you are trying to help others, I recommend you reconsider what you are typing and ask yourself how would you take such a comment.
Some random facts about 9/11, the area of the Pentagon that was hit had many empty offices as they were updating the offices on some floors. Death rate could have been higher in the building.
Final Destination moment from Sept 11th. One man's office was in the side of the Pentagon that was hit. If he were at his desk, he most likely would have died. He died on United flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
Here’s some pentagon trivia for you: if you add the measures of all the internal angles of a pentagon, they will always add up to 540 degrees, or 3 pi radians, regardless of the pentagon used. If you add all the external angles together, they’ll equal 1260 degrees or 7 pi radians.
I like the single strip of wallpaper idea!
This reminds me of Johnny Harris videos but you definitely have your own vibe and hell yeah man! Keep at it!