On May 27, 1941, three weeks after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, President Franklin Roosevelt declared a “State of Emergency” and began plans to develop a new central building for the United Stated War Department, which at the time was scattered among 17 buildings. President Franklin Roosevelt personally approved construction of the new War Department building at 21st Street within Washington D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood. However, it was decided to have the War Department building in Arlington County, Virginia so that it would be outside of the city of Washington D.C. which was a target for the Axis government.
Construction of “The Pentagon” began on September 11, 2001, exactly sixty years before the day of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.