The Pentagon

The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the Commonwealth Ministry of Defense. As a symbol of the Commonwealth military, the phrase The Pentagon is also often used as a metonym for the Commonwealth military and its leadership.

Located in Cinigrad across the Cinigrad River from the main governmental area, the building was designed by Yuktobanian architect George Bergstrom and built by contractor John McShain. Ground was broken on 11 September 1941, and the building was dedicated on 15 January 1943. General Tamon Friecce provided the major motivating power behind the project; Colonel Leslie Groves was responsible for overseeing the project for the Yuktobanian Army.

Originally built for the Yuktobanian Military, during the Cold War the entire building was revamped in a series of upgrades in the 1950s that added additional underground office space. The current layout consists of each side of the building being occupied by a specific military in the Commonwealth. Currently, Tricentennial, Jaipuria, Yuktobania, Helmanstend, and Engrandonica occupy the aboveground portion of the Pentagon, while the underground office space is reserved for the Philippines and Asuria.

The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with about 6500000 ft2 of space, of which 3700000 ft2 are used as offices. Some 23,000 military and civilian employees, and another 3,000 non-defense support personnel, work in the Pentagon. It has five sides, five floors above ground, two basement levels, and five ring corridors per floor with a total of 17.5 mi of corridors. The central five-acre (20,000 m2) pentagonal plaza is nicknamed "ground zero" on the presumption that it would be a prime target in a nuclear war.

On 11 September 2001, exactly 60 years after the building's construction began, Air Tricentennial Flight 532 was hijacked and flown into the western side and Helman sector of the building, killing 189 people (59 victims and the five terrorists on board the airliner, as well as 125 victims in the building), according to the 9/11 Commission Report.