The Pentagon, located across the Potomac River from Washington D.C. in Arlington County, Virginia, serves as the central command center for the US Military. The highest echelons of all five branches operate out of the Pentagon—the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force. Around 27,000 people work there daily.
There are also 284 bathrooms. Sorry…did that interrupt the flow? I apologize.
Last November, I took a trip to Washington D.C. to see all the great monuments and hang out with friends and family. I heard a story about the Pentagon that was funny enough to retell:
During the Cold War, the Soviets heavily monitored the Pentagon using satellites. They noticed one mysterious pattern; every day, hundreds of top-ranking officers gathered and came through this one central spot amid the 5-acre interior courtyard.
This heavy foot-traffic at exactly the same time every day led Soviet Intelligence to deduce that the Pentagon was a massive fortress to protect an underground bunker. They also noticed that every time an officer left the location, they held a shiny metal something up to their mouth. Were they creating handheld weapons? Was this to be the Soviet’s demise?
The reality—it was simply a popular hot dog stand that became a popular lunch spot for thousands of Pentagon employees. The hot dogs were always wrapped in tinfoil, leading the satellites to detect metal.
It popularly became known as “the world’s most dangerous hot dog stand”, and earned the tongue-in-cheek name, “Cafe Ground Zero.” American officers joked that the Soviets took it so seriously that they always had at least two missiles pointed at the spot.