Students meet security, history at Pentagon

The United State’s defense hub is also the one of the world’s most efficient office buildings. And from the perspective of a tourist, it wouldn’t appear to be much more.

More than 100,000 tourists traverse its corridors each year, according to the Pentagon Web site. But aside from a handful of personnel donning military attire, the free world’s national defense headquarters appears to be nothing more than a conglomerate of mundane offices, complete with blank white walls and water coolers every few yards. On a guided tour, visitors will see artifacts scattered throughout corridors closely resembling a museum. These hallways, commemorating benchmarks in U.S. defense history, are some of the only indicators of the building’s significance.

But your typical office building doesn’t have multiple security checkpoints, just to get in the door, nor does it have the amenities of an entire city. The Pentagon, complete with medical and dental facilities, restaurants, shops and a fully functional post office, could theoretically lock its doors and work independently from the surrounding Washington area. The shape of the roughly 4 million square-foot low-rise complex allows the distance between any two points to be spanned in about seven minutes, making it one of the most efficient buildings in the world.

What tourists don’t see are the deliberations and decisions made within the walls of the Pentagon that affect lives of American civilians and military personnel each day and the policy that impacts U.S. foreign relations.

New visitors will now see a recent historical addition to the tour: the rebuilt side of the building that was destroyed in the 2001 Sept. 11 attacks. They will stand in the place where a commercial airliner collided with the building, killing 184 people. They will also have an opportunity to explore the outdoor memorial dedicated to the victims killed in the attack. This is not part of the guided tour, but it gives the biggest indication of the building’s significance.