The Pentagon road network is a system of highways, mostly freeways, built by the United States federal government in the early 1940s to serve the Pentagon in northern Virginia. The roads, transferred to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1964, are now largely state highways. The main part of the network is the Mixing Bowl at Interstate 395 and Route 27, named because it had major weaving issues with traffic "mixing" between the two roads before it was rebuilt in the early 1970s.
Looking north on I-395 toward the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase The Pentagon is often used as a metonym for the Department of Defense and its leadership.
A view of The Pentagon from the south in September 2007
The main Navy Building (foreground) and the Munitions Building were temporary structures built during World War I on the National Mall. The Department of War was headquartered in the Munitions Building for several years before moving into the Pentagon.
The Hall of Heroes on the Pentagon's main concourse
Military police keep back Vietnam War protesters during their sit-in at the Pentagon's National Mall entrance on 21 October 1967
